Debordering Europe through the 2022 Ukrainian Refugee Crisis: Analysis of Responses in the UK, Poland and Romania

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The Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and the related displacement of millions of people from their homes to other countries in Europe has elicited a range of responses from publics, civil society actors and policy-makers. Such responses have engaged a range of 'debordering' processes and practices, which have involved the removal of barriers to travel to and settle in countries across Europe. The purpose of this fellowship will be to place these wide-ranging changes in comparative perspective through a multiscalar analysis of three different European countries - the UK, Poland and Romania. The European Union has been both a de- and rebordering project, which has removed barriers to movement and settlement for certain residents whilst strengthening borders at its margins and eliciting a growth in internalised controls and restrictions on other residents within member states. The enlargement of the European Union to include Poland (in 2004) and Romania (in 2007) debordered the UK as a place to live and work for Polish and Romanian citizens, but also led to changes in the UK's internalised border regime through restrictions on access to the labour market and state support. This was followed by further changes to border and immigration regimes across Europe in response to refugee movements from elsewhere in the world. The consequences of debordering and the migration of hundreds of thousands of people from the EU's new member states to the UK, as well as the EU's responses to refugee movements, formed a key focus in debates surrounding the UK's exit from the European Union prior to the 2016 referendum. The UK's subsequent exit from the Union has led to further changes in state bordering processes and practices primarily through the introduction of the Nationality and Borders Act (2022).However, after Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the displacement of people from Ukraine fundamentally shifted the context for debates and policy-making relating to border regimes and forced migrants in the UK, but also the European Union and its members states. There is an urgent need for in-depth analysis of not only what these responses have been but also what they mean for the UK in terms of its positioning and geopolitical relations with the EU and the rest of the world. Such knowledge cannot be based solely upon analysis of elite policy-making and discourse, but requires an approach that draws together these multiple scales, including civil society actors and communities, where people have been working together to secure the lives of people from Ukraine.During this fellowship, the fellow will develop such analysis based on secondary and primary data from a range of sources. This will include a survey of and focus groups with hosts and people from Ukraine living with host families in Poland, Romania and the UK, interviews with decision-makers in civil society organisations and policy-makers in all three countries, as well as in-depth analysis of policies, parliamentary debates and media discourses surrounding governmental responses to the displacement. This complex, multi-stranded approach will enable the development of a detailed understanding of the interplay between all of these actors in shaping bordering processes and practices during and after the invasion.