Institut für Europäische Politik IEP – english version

Ukrainians in Poland and Germany – Civic and Political Engagement, Expectations, and Courses of Action

The goal of this joint project of the Institute of Public Affairs, Warsaw, and the Institut für Europäische Politik, Berlin, is to analyse the various forms of civic engagement of Ukrainians living in Poland and Germany. It is based on a series of in-depth inter­views with members of the Ukrainian diaspora living in Poland and Germany regarding their views on the Ukraine Crisis and the future of Ukraine, including the question of EU-membership as well as their readiness to support the democracy movement in Ukraine. The results will be published in a research paper that will appear in both Polish and German, and also in a Ukrainian summary. Additionally, based off of the research results, recom­men­da­tions will be presented in an English-language policy brief on how the democracy movement can be strengthened through an improvement of the under­lying condi­tions for civic engagement in Germany and Poland. These will be followed up with discus­sions with scien­tists, experts, and decision-makers in events in Berlin and Warsaw.

Detailed Goals of the Project

• Survey of the civic engagement of Ukrainians living in Germany and Poland: forms of engagement, contri­bution to the democ­ra­ti­zation of Ukraine, themes of political activ­ities, extent of engagement within the diaspora, and the signif­i­cance of struc­tures in the Ukrainian diaspora;
• Research on whether (and possibly how) the devel­opment of the situation in Ukraine, the crisis, and the signing of the associ­ation agreement have influ­enced the civic engagement of Ukrainians living in Germany and Poland, their feelings of belonging to Europe, their national identity, and their decision to live in the EU or return to their homeland;
• To show what the motiva­tions for civic engagement are, as well as the reasons for its absence;
• To show how Poland and Germany can help Ukrainians living in their countries with their civic activ­ities and their support for the democ­ra­ti­zation of Ukraine and its conver­gence with the European Union.

The project is supported by the Deutsch-Polnische Wissenschaftss­tiftung.

Time Frame

May 2015 to April 2016

Project Team

Dr. Katrin Böttger
Julian Plottka
Ljudmyla Melnyk