A World of Refugees: The Outbreak of War in Ukraine

By: The faculty and students of the REAL

Today, war has broken out in Ukraine. This event is an eerie echo of what the world witnessed 83 years ago with Ukraine’s neighbor, Poland, when Nazi Germany invaded. As of February 24th, 2022, media projections suggest that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s actions will quickly result in upwards of 1 million or more Ukrainians fleeing westward as refugees. Soon, these displaced persons will no longer be members of communities where they had a home, a livelihood, a daily routine, and, most importantly, an identity. They will simply melt into the large and growing global population of “refugees.” This tragedy is happening in real-time.

The Refugee Educational Advancement Laboratory (REAL) sends its deepest and most heartfelt thoughts to all Ukrainians. As a group of students and scholars, we will vigilantly monitor the events unfolding across the Atlantic, just as we monitor refugee activity elsewhere in the world. 

While REAL’s focus is on refugee access to education–a process that is several steps removed from the initial tragedy of displacement–we know that after massive upheaval and once survival is ensured humans aspire to regain ownership over their human rights, including education. A return to the educational routine and the safety that classrooms and institutions provide is but one small but critical source of comfort educators the world over can offer those whose lives have been uprooted. Education is, and will always be, among the most precious and foundational rights that every human being deserves.

Today’s tragedy in Ukraine now binds the citizens of that nation to those in other countries who are already victims of war, genocide, famine, and additional maladies that are the cause of forced displacement. Indeed, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR, Figures at a Glance), five major crises in five different regions of the world have by now displaced 82.4 million humans, both people domestically and internationally–the greatest rise in numbers since the Second World War.  Among those, 26.4 million now bear the tragic label of “refugee.” These man-made and avoidable tragedies consume Syria and Afghanistan in the Middle East, Venezuela in South America, South Sudan in Africa, and Myanmar in Southeast Asia, among other less publicized crises globally. Now Ukraine may join them. 

All of these situations push citizens into neighboring countries and points far beyond their homeland. No intake country is ever perfectly equipped to provide the short-term humanitarian and long-term integration support its newcomers will need. Some well-resourced countries will be better equipped to open their doors than others are. But the vast majority of the less developed countries will continue to shoulder the weight of the nearly 90% of all refugee flows. Each country of transit or of final resettlement will take a different position toward offering integration and support services for refugees. But what we know from past behavior is that few will welcome them openly. 

Today, we are faced with the likely scenario that millions of Ukrainians in real-time will soon join the expanding web of suffering and global displacement we have seen grow in our lifetimes. The REAL team joins a loud chorus of international voices condemning the actions of the Russian leadership today. We send our thoughts to the Ukrainian people and encourage the United States to be prepared to open its doors to displaced populations who may come from Ukraine, just as they have come so recently from Afghanistan and have come throughout our history from so many other ailing corners of the world.

All opinions are exclusively those of the Refugee Educational Advancement Laboratory (REAL) and not of the George Washington University nor the Graduate School of Education and Human Development.