De facto n°33 | Juin 2022

The war in Ukraine unlea­shed by the Russian inva­sion of 24 February 2022, and the massive influx of refu­gees fleeing the conflict have profoundly altered our percep­tion of the terri­to­rial boun­da­ries that cut across eastern Europe. We must consider all the issues at stake – contested national borders, the fantasy of resto­ring Soviet borders, the return
of a new “iron curtain”, the emer­gence of new cross-border soli­da­ri­ties – when seeking to grasp the diver­sity of Ukrai­nian migration.

This new issue of De facto aims to restore histo­rical depth to this ques­tion. Thomas Chopard examines how the current migra­tion wave fits into the histo­rical pattern of Ukrai­nian migra­tion in the 20th century. Cathe­rine Gous­seff shows how the succes­sive Ukrai­nian borders have – or have not followed the ethnic, linguistic and reli­gious boun­da­ries of this complex geogra­phical area. Fran­ciszek Zakr­zewski and Tymek Skowroński high­light the role of migrant support orga­ni­za­tions in Poland faced with the state’s preva­ri­ca­ting response to the different migrant inflows. The “In Maps” feature details the distri­bu­tion of migrant desti­na­tions and transit zones. Last, Fran­çois Héran examines this distri­bu­tion of migrants in rela­tion to the “part” that each country can or should play.

Antonin Durand, Thomas Chopard, Cathe­rine Gous­seff and Claire Zalc, scien­tific coordinators