Lessons for Reform from the Ukrainian Refugee Crisis
Guest post by Professor Raquel Aldana
A new policy brief for the UC Davis Global Migration Center documents and contextualizes the legal and humanitarian aid responses to the Ukrainian refugee crisis. Largely through temporary protection mechanisms, Ukrainian refugees have experienced open-door policies and practices that have facilitated their mobility and economic and social integration. There are many important lessons to be learned from the world’s welcoming and generous response to Ukrainian refugees. This policy brief provides four recommendations centered around important reforms to temporary protected measures, continuing permanent resettlement options, adopting fair burden-sharing mechanism, and granting equal treatment to other refugee populations.
Summary of Recommendations
- Temporary protected status is a helpful mechanism to move quickly to offer protections to emergency refugee situations, but reforms should include potential paths to legalization, family unification, and access to certain social programs.
- Permanent refugee resettlement should continue to be part of the solution to refugees.
- Nations also have to commit to strengthen mechanisms of more equitable burden sharing when massive, forced displacement occurs rather than expect a handful of nations to host the overwhelming numbers of refugees.
- We have to reckon with and end discriminatory responses to refugees.