Understanding forced internal displacement in Ukraine: insights and lessons for today’s crises

Vlad Mykhnenko, Elliot Delahaye and Nigel Mehdi

Oxford Review of Economic Policy, 2022, vol. 38, issue 3, 699-716

Abstract: The contribution of this paper is threefold: first, it accounts for the problem of Ukraine’s forced internal displacement, following the Russian occupation of the Crimea and Donbas regions in 2014; second, this study applies a number of quantitative research methods to provide new insights into the way that individual and destination characteristics of the internally displaced people (IDPs) impact upon their destination preferences; finally, it draws four key policy lessons for dealing with today’s worst humanitarian catastrophe in Europe since 1945. These lessons focus on the individual characteristics of forced migrants for understanding displacement patterns; and the need for full restoration of legitimate democratic government at home as the necessary condition for return. They also highlight that in the extraordinary circumstances of large-scale warfare, life-saving action takes precedence over any other motivations; and the host communities’ perceived sympathy towards the forced migrants’ home nation ultimately determines the choice of settlement.

Keywords: forced displacement; migration; geography; gravity model; Ukraine; Crimea; Donbas (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/oxrep/grac020 (application/pdf)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:oup:oxford:v:38:y:2022:i:3:p:699-716.

Access Statistics for this article

Oxford Review of Economic Policy is currently edited by Christopher Adam

More articles in Oxford Review of Economic Policy from Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Oxford University Press ().