Final publication: Challenges of Belarusian migrants in Europe

31/07/2024

The adoption of a decree by Belarusian ruler Lukashenka in 2023 made it practically impossible for Belarusian citizens abroad to renew their official documents, such as passports. Since then, Belarusians living in exile are required to travel back to Belarus for renewing and obtaining official documents. However, entering Belarus is dangerous for many of them, as they often face immediate arrest at the border - especially if they took part in the protests against the fraudulent presidential elections in 2020.

This is just one of the many challenges faced by Belarusians who have chosen to emigrate due to the repressions of the Belarusian regime and have been living in other European countries ever since. Despite numerous similar challenges for the Belarusian diaspora, there are considerable differences in the legal framework conditions for Belarusian people in individual countries.

As part of the project "VisiBYlity for Belarusian Democratic Actors", we examined the administrative hurdles for Belarusian migrants in Ukraine, Lithuania, Poland and Germany. The research was conducted by the VisiBYlity project partners Dr Olga Matveieva and Dr Vasil Navumau. The results are freely available in German and English in the publication below.

Presentation of the research

Our project partners presented the research results during the final event of the VisiBYlity project on 17 June at the Museum für Kommunikation in Berlin. During the presentation, Dr Vasil Navumau emphasized that recognizing Belarus as an unsafe country of origin – as was recently done in Sweden – could help Belarusians in their European host countries to secure a legal residence status. Dr Imke Hansen from Libereco e.V. – Partnership for Human Rights presented her report "I feel like a fish out of water" and reminded the audience that the Belarusian diaspora is constantly on the move in Europe due to the complexity of legal frameworks.

Dr Lev Lvovskiy, Academic Director of the Belarusian Economic Research and Outreach Center (BEROC) and Fellow of the VisiBYlity project, emphasized that migrants with high human capital in non-convertible professions, such as lawyers, in particular need support in finding work in their host countries. Maria Rudz, Chairwoman of the Belarusische Gemeinschaft RAZAM e.V., also pointed out the high hurdles for Belarusian migrant workers to find work in Germany. Olga Dryndova, editor of Belarus-Analysen, moderated the speakers' contributions and the subsequent discussion with the audience. We would like to thank all speakers and participants for a lively discussion.