HOUSTON – (Feb. 28, 2022) – Up to 5 million Ukranians could ultimately flee their home country — and even more could be displaced within the country — if the Russian invasion continues, according to an expert from Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy.
"Hundreds of thousands of refugees have fled Ukraine, but it need not be a crisis for Europe," said Kelsey Norman, director of the Women’s Rights, Human Rights and Refugees Program at the Baker Institute. Norman is available to discuss international migration with the news media.
Approximately 500,000 refugees have fled Ukraine in the last few days to nearby countries, primarily Poland and Moldova.
“Europe does not need to view Ukrainian displacement as a crisis, and can instead learn lessons from the way it responded to the arrival of Syrians and other nationalities in 2015,” said Norman.
Ukranians currently have visa-free access to the European Union for 90 days. But Norman says European governments can facilitate longer stays by opening pathways to labor or student visas, expedited family sponsorship and asylum.
EU governments are also collaborating with international agencies like the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) to release aid to front-line states such as Poland, ensuring access to emergency food and shelter for arriving Ukranians.
“Along with continuing to amplify these measures, Europe needs to reconsider its discriminatory policies toward asylum seekers from countries in the Middle East and Africa who have not been welcomed in the same vein as Ukranian refugees, and have instead been forced to wait in deplorable conditions at the edge of Europe's borders or in third countries where their safety is not guaranteed,” said Norman.
Norman, also a fellow for the Middle East at the Baker Institute, focuses on women’s rights, human rights and refugee and migration issues in the Middle East and North Africa. Her other research interests include comparative political institutions, international relations, immigration, citizenship and gender.