Resilience in action: Poland's response to the migration crisis caused by the war in Ukraine

Abstract

The subject of the study was the reaction and self-organization of Polish society to the sudden influx of war refugees from Ukraine after 24 February 2022. The mass response of the Polish society and the provision of aid to approximately 5 million Ukrainian refugees was a phenomenon extensively discussed in various forums. The situation required developing new crisis management mechanisms almost from scratch, as the existing system could not handle the sudden large influx of people. This provided an opportunity to study the mechanisms that prevented a serious humanitarian crisis in border regions. A quantitative and qualitative analysis identified the key factors responsible for the efficiency and resilience of the response. The study used a proprietary index to measure social resilience and supplemented it with in-depth qualitative research on key crisis response actions. We describe the mechanisms responsible for the system's quick reaction and stabilization. The research revealed diverse forms of self-organization in Polish society, ranging from informal groups to formal state institutions. This variety enabled flexible adaptation to rapidly changing situations. These initiatives operated independently with different coordination mechanisms, which could not be unified. While the lack of a single coordination mechanism might be seen as a weakness, it allowed for a resilient and comprehensive response on the regional system scale.