| Abstract [eng] |
Migration has been a significant concern for the European Union due to several crises it has faced recently, varying in scale and complexity. Due to a war and political persecution faced in the home country, Ukrainians and Belarusians have started a new life in one of the European Union’s countries, Lithuania. Since different procedures were used while accepting both Ukrainians and Belarusians, newcomers encountered diverse challenges related to reception and integration. Given the instability in the world, new migratory crises are possible for not only Lithuania but also other European Union’s countries; therefore, it is important to learn from past experiences and adapt to changing circumstances in order to ensure social cohesion. This explains the relevance of this topic. The novelty of this project lies in the investigation of the integration of Belarusian and Ukrainian citizens in Lithuania through the perspective of NGOs, an issue that has received limited focus in prior studies. However, the topic of integration was studied by different scholars starting from Landecker in 1951 to the most recent publications of Thomsen & Weilage (2023), Okafor & Kalu (2023), Shen & Xia (2023), and Ruiz et al. (2023). The research problem of this work is as follows: What are the main impacting factors and differences in the reception and integration of Ukrainian and Belarusian citizens in Lithuania according to the main 4 NGOs? The research object of this work is the challenges of integration of Ukrainian and Belarusian citizens in Lithuania from the perspective of the main 4 NGOs. The aim of this project is to investigate the challenges of integration of Ukrainian and Belarusian citizens in Lithuania from the perspective of the main 4 NGOs. The following 4 objectives of the project were identified. First of all, to analyse the specificity of the immigrants’ integration process from a theoretical perspective. Second of all, to present the situation of foreigners’ integration policy in Lithuania. Third of all, to systematise the actions of NGOs in the integration process of Ukrainian and Belarusian citizens in Lithuania. Lastly, to carry out an empirical research in order to highlight the challenges of the integration of Ukrainian and Belarusian citizens in Lithuania. The following 6 research methods were used in order to prepare this work: scientific literature review, analysis of official documents, analysis of documents, statistical data analysis, qualitative expert structured interview, and thematic analysis. The main results of the project are that the push-pull model explains forced migration the most extensively and determines appropriate support for different types of migrants in both their reception and integration. Integration is a complex, approximately a year-lasting process, involving several parties, who adapt and evolve towards the full acknowledgment of immigrants as part of the host society while preserving their culture and identity and promoting social cohesion and harmony within society. Integration can be explained by multiple dimensions that mostly relates to a person’s identity and sense of belonging, cultural, social interaction and political, civic aspects. It is affected by individual, socioeconomic and policy-related factors. Employment, housing, education, health, and socialisation emerged as the 5 main areas of individual’s life, most accurately defining the success of one’s integration. Lithuania’s integration policy is a part of national migration policy and it has significantly improved since 2014, with various different institutions being involved. NGOs, including Lithuanian Red Cross, Caritas Lithuania, Save the Children Lithuania, and the Order of Malta Relief Organization, play a crucial role in helping both Ukrainian and Belarusian nationals in Lithuania by assuring essential humanitarian aid, organising case management and socialisation, and offering financial support. Ukrainians receive a more favourable reception in Lithuania, while Belarusians experience significantly more difficulties in their reception; despite this, Belarusians have a relatively better integration process compared to Ukrainians. In total, 12 factors that affect the reception of Belarusians, compared to 11 factors for Ukrainians, were identified. As for integration, both groups face challenges in areas such as education, employment, housing, health security, and socialisation. 32 factors impact Belarusian and 50 factors impact Ukrainian citizens integration. It highlights the need for improvements in policies. This work contains 4 main chapters, 132 pages (with appendices), 17 tables, 12 figures, 16 appendices, 60 sources of scientific literature and 53 legal acts and data sources were used, which defines the structure of this project. |
