How to help refugees effectively? Experience from Poland and Germany. Highlights of the debate

Europe is now facing its biggest refugee crisis since the World War II, which at the same time poses a major challenge to host countries. This problem particularly concerns Poland and Germany, where most Ukrainians fleeing the war are living. Many of them would like to live a relatively normal life and support themselves until the war is over. However, it is not easy.

Statistics show that there are far too few vacancies and employment conditions are not so friendly. So how are Poland and Germany dealing with the refugee crisis and what solutions are they using? What tools do they use to ensure their social and economic integration? These questions were raised by the participants of the debate entitled How to effectively help refugees? Experiences from Poland and Germany, which took place as part of the 8th European Congress of Local Governments. The debate was moderated by Ivanna Kyliushnyk, an expert of the “Our Choice” foundation from Warsaw, and attended by: Urs Unkauf – Managing Director of the Federal Association for Economic Development and Foreign Trade (BWA), Germany; Alexander Dubowy – Head of the Economic Team at the Austrian Integration Fund; Iryna Shatkivska – Chairwoman of the Charity Foundation “Voice of Women of Ukraine”; Izabella Woźnicka – Partner at WP Law Woźniccy & Partners sp.j. and Olga Doleśniak-Harczuk – Deputy Editor-in-Chief of the New State, who started the debate.

As a child, raised in a family of refugees in Germany, Olga Doleśniak-Harczuk compared the changes that have taken place in migration policy over the past decades. In her opinion, Poland has perfectly coped with the challenges related to the refugee crisis. As statistics show, 746,000 Ukrainian citizens are already implemented in the Polish labor market, which means that their integration is proceeding quickly and efficiently. Refugees from Ukraine are able to learn Polish faster than German and therefore find a job faster. One of the biggest tasks, according to Olga Doleśniak-Harczuk, is the integration of children who learn remotely and do not have close contact with Polish ones.

Izabella Woźnicka, in turn, assessed the adopted laws concerning refugees in Poland. In her opinion, the effectiveness of these documents can only be assessed over time, but the adopted laws made it possible to solve the urgent needs of society. She also assessed that the refugee crisis may accelerate the process of implementing important and previously needed laws on migration policy and improve the transparency of administrative services.

Urs Unkauf, who represented Germany, said that his country also admired how Poland dealt with these challenges. The previous refugee crisis helped Germany cope with integration processes and is a valuable lesson that German authorities at all levels are now drawing on. In Germany, the principle of subsidiarity – which states that each level of government should carry out only those tasks that cannot be effectively carried out by the lower level or by individuals acting within society themselves, works effectively. The developed mechanisms, procedures and the consequences drawn from the mistakes made allowed Germany to deal with the current extraordinary situation resulting from the Russian aggression in Ukraine relatively efficiently. In this case, all European countries had to take immediate action in cooperation with business and civil society. Both the Federal Ministry of the Interior and the state refugee ministries were preparing to receive new people by collecting data on vacancies in accommodation centres for asylum seekers. However, it was quickly realized that the initial assumptions were too optimistic and had to be abruptly revised along with the thousands of people who come to Germany every day to flee bombs. However, now, according to Urs Unkauf – a year after the beginning of the war, it is necessary to think about systemic solutions at the European level.

Alexander Dubowy, representing the main partner of the Austrian government, in matters of migration policy – the Austrian Integration Fund shared the solutions that they managed to implement effectively. In his opinion, every European country faces similar challenges in this matter, which is why it is necessary to exchange knowledge and experience. Austria has created the organization TeamUkraine, which organizes language courses, engages both Austrian and Ukrainian volunteers in joint work, creates integration programs for children and youth.

One of the panelists – Iryna Shatkivska is a refugee herself, and a psychologist by education and profession – spoke about the need for psychological help, which is lacking in Poland, Germany, but also in other host countries. In her opinion, each country should train psychologists and create a help center for mothers, who, in turn, will continue to help their children overcome psychological difficulties associated with war and moving to another country.

In the second part of the debate, the panelists raised the issue of long-term integration. In their opinion, each country should facilitate the process of recognition of diplomas and qualifications in order to enable Ukrainians to be employed in positions that correspond to their competences and enable them to receive remuneration that will enable them to live in dignity. In this respect, Poland is quicker to introduce appropriate changes. Finally, the participants of the panel discussed the need to carry out support programs for host societies and fight negative trends. According to the speakers, people should not feel a decrease in their standard of living as a result of the influx of refugees, and the task of states is to support their motivation to help those in need. The current situation can greatly improve relations between Ukraine and other European countries and establish long-term people-to-people relations. Therefore, each of the parties should cultivate these ties and create joint projects, cultural events, youth exchanges. Such initiatives will help to create a basis for further cooperation and communication.

The debate was held as part of the project “4Ukraine. Migration challenges: lessons from Poland and Germany” of the “Bridges of the Future. Poland and Germany for Ukraine” of the Foundation for Polish-German Cooperation. The project is financed by the Federal Foreign Office of Germany. The partners of the event are the “Our Choice” Foundation and the Federal Association for Economic Development and Foreign Trade (BWA).