The Russian war of aggression against Ukraine triggered the largest refugee displacement in Europe since the end of the Second World War. More than one million people have fled from Ukraine to Germany since the beginning of the war in February 2022, thus, Ukrainian refugees currently represent the largest group of asylum seekers in Germany.

The forced displacement from Ukraine differs from previous displacements in terms of institutional frameworks (e.g., open EU borders due to the exemption from the visa requirement, activation of the mass influx directive).

In addition, it is characterized by a high number of women with care responsibilities, a high level of education among refugees and possibly a greater acceptance of Ukranian refugees by the majority society. In view of the special characteristics of the migratory movement, the German Research Foundation (DFG)-funded project Longitudinal study on Ukrainian refugees in Germany (SUARE) has two overall objectives:

(1)   Development of a longitudinal data infrastructure on the situation of Ukrainian refugees in Germany and their development over the next three years (Longitudinal Study of Ukrainian Refugees (SUARE) as well as their integration into the IAB-BAMF-SOEP study and the SOEP main survey (SOEP-CORE) (waves 2023-2025).

(2)   Identification of the meaning of the specific institutional, economic and social frame works of forced migration from Ukraine for the thematical focus areas health and discrimination by comparing it with (a) refugees in Germany from other cultural, political and socio-economical contexts, (b) the population with a migration history and (c) the autochthonous population.

The research project is complemented by the sub-project Selectivity of the forced migration and work integration (https://iab.de/projekt/?id=12660630) from Prof. Dr. Herbert Brücker and Prof. Dr. Yuliya Kosyakova, conducted Institute for employment research (IAB).