Since February 2025, a research project has been investigating the migration movements triggered by Russia’s attack on Ukraine. The project focuses on the topics of migration, affective geopolitics and democracy in Europe in the face of military conflicts. One goal is to develop recommendations for political action when dealing with the consequences of war-related refugee movements. The project Migration, Affective Geopolitics, and European Democracy in Times of Military Conflicts (MAGnituDe), in collaboration with the University of Greifswald, was developed by researchers from several universities, research centres and aid organisations. The European Union’s “Horizon Europe” research programme supported it with a fund of three million EUR. Up to ten researchers will work together to realise the project.
Russia’s war against Ukraine has led to an unprecedented refugee movement. By November 2023, almost six million people had fled from Ukraine to European states. They have been granted temporary protection status within the framework of the Temporary Protection Directive. Nevertheless, the future status of these refugees is still uncertain. Many of them plan to remain in the European Union after the war.
The project aims to analyse how war-related migration reinforces the deepening of social divisions based on emotional and ideological differences, so-called affective polarisation. The risks of social polarisation and identity fragmentation will be subject of examination.
The aim is to analyse:
1. how Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the traumas associated with it shape the daily interactions of forcibly displaced people and state institutions, other migrants and the host society.
2. how such experiences influence the education of new communities, how identities change and promote new social conflicts.
3. how people who have had to flee their homeland experience living together in the states that grant them protection, and how this affects their trust in democracy and democratic practices.
4. which instruments, strategies and framework conditions help to prevent social alienation and identity fragmentation among forcibly displaced people and foster their sense of belonging and their participation in democratic processes and communities.
A central reserach component is the concept of affective geopolitics. The emotional and sensory aspects of geopolitical interactions will be analysed. This should open up new perspectives on individual and collective migration movements.
The initiator of the MAGnituDe project is the sociologist and historian Dr Olga Sasunkevich from the University of Gothenburg. The Interdisciplinary Centre for Baltic Sea Region Research (IFZO) at the University of Greifswald is taking on the task of disseminating the research results and ensuring that the findings are translated into applicable political recommendations. These efforts are intended to help prevent discrimination and marginalisation as a result of war-related migration movements and to promote social cohesion and democratic participation in Europe. In this sense, the project’s impact strategy is aimed not only at migrants, but also at civil society, political decision-makers, socio-political actors, journalists and researchers.
In addition to the University of Greifswald, the universities in Gothenburg (Sweden), Gdańsk (Poland), Joensuu (Finland), the Centre for Social Research in Vilnius (Lithuania) and Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona (Spain) also partake in the project. The non-governmental organisation “Help Ukraine Göteborg” (Sweden) and the APIS Centre in Ljubljana (Slovenia) used to be involved as well.
Contact: alexander.drost[at]uni-greifswald.de