Suchergebnisse

The relation between power and public space has been one of the main interest of geographicalresearch in the last decades (Massey 1994, Mitchell 2003). Researches have illustrated thatfollowing a regime change, the symbolic space of the city – compiled of street names, statuesand monuments – usually gets reconfigured. Following the Euromaidan, in 2015, the laws ondecommunization were accepted in Ukraine, which disposed more comprehensibly than ever before the banishment of Communist symbols from the public space. The decommunizationbesides toponymy, entangled other elements of public space resulting in major shifts the urbanlandscape as well.Main interest of present paper is to study the major shifts in symbolic landscape in the capital,Kyiv and compare it to the processes that have taken place in the westernmost periphery of thecountry, Transcarpathia. Based on the examples of Uzhhorod, Berehove raion and Berehove, ourfurther aim is to shed light on the role of locality and how local memory is represented in publicspace.

Multiethnic borderlands, like Transcarpathia in Western Ukraine, are characterized by ethnic-linguistic-confessional complexity where ethnic boundary-making and ethnic categorization are constructed and rooted in politics. The present study aims to analyze how the mechanisms of ethnic categorization and boundary-making play out on a local level. Based on data analysis and fieldwork conducted in Hudya/Gődényháza in Transcarpathia, a village with ethnically, linguistically, and denominationally diverse population, we describe how "ethnicity" is getting blurred and reconstructed in the narrative strategies of residents. We examine the characteristics of the various classification systems (external classification, self-reporting) and their relation to each other. It is found that the ethnic, linguistic, and denominational affiliations in the village (and its wider region) are often divergent, which is reflected in the significant discrepancy between the data gathered in various ethnic classification systems. We argue that denomination is the prime factor of both self-identification and external classification, obscuring the boundaries between religious and standard ethnic terms. We further point to the formation of new boundaries between autochthonous and allochthonous populations. Although this cleavage emerged a few decades ago and has been transgressed by dozens of marriages among autochthonous and newcomers, it can easily get ethnicized, thus it adds an extra layer to the existing distinctions.

Ukraine's turbulent recent history has had serious economic and social effects in its westernmost region, Transcarpathia. The East Ukrainian armed conflict, accompanied by a serious economic downturn, resulted in major modifications in individual and family life strategies determined by emigration and the policies of the neighbouring V4 states. The main focus of the present research was to study how recent political events (Euromaidan, the Russian takeover in Crimea, the Donbas conflict) affected Transcarpathia and its ethnic Hungarian population; furthermore, how patterns of individual and family life and migration strategies have been influenced by Hungary's kin-state politics. The study is based on analysis of statistical data and policy documents, complemented by semi-structured interviews conducted in spring 2016. We found that the dynamics of emigration from Transcarpathia in the past few years are fuelled by the unrest in Eastern Ukraine (including the military drafts) and Hungary's kin-state politics, especially the preferential (re)naturalisation simplifying the acquisition of Hungarian citizenship. Individual and family livelihood strategies, migration patterns and cross-border connections are influenced by the regional geopolitics of V4 countries. We argue that the western neighbours of the weakening Ukraine have unobtrusively made attempts to take advantage of the changing geopolitical circumstances in order to increase their influence and attract human resources.

Ukraine's turbulent recent history has had serious economic and social effects in its westernmost region, Transcarpathia. The East Ukrainian armed conflict, accompanied by a serious economic downturn, resulted in major modifications in individual and family life strategies determined by emigration and the policies of the neighbouring V4 states. The main focus of the present research was to study how recent political events (Euromaidan, the Russian takeover in Crimea, the Donbas conflict) affected Transcarpathia and its ethnic Hungarian population; furthermore, how patterns of individual and family life and migration strategies have been influenced by Hungary's kin-state politics. The study is based on analysis of statistical data and policy documents, complemented by semi-structured interviews conducted in spring 2016. We found that the dynamics of emigration from Transcarpathia in the past few years are fuelled by the unrest in Eastern Ukraine (including the military drafts) and Hungary's kin-state politics, especially the preferential (re)naturalisation simplifying the acquisition of Hungarian citizenship. Individual and family livelihood strategies, migration patterns and cross-border connections are influenced by the regional geopolitics of V4 countries. We argue that the western neighbours of the weakening Ukraine have unobtrusively made attempts to take advantage of the changing geopolitical circumstances in order to increase their influence and attract human resources. ; Ostatnie wydarzenia na Ukrainie miały poważne skutki gospodarcze i społeczne także dla najbardziej na zachód wysuniętego regionu kraju - Zakarpacia. Konfliktowi z Rosją towarzyszy poważne spowolnienie gospodarcze, które z kolei przyczyniło się do modyfikacji indywidualnych i rodzinnych strategii uwarunkowanych procesami migracyjnymi oraz polityką prowadzoną przez państwa ościenne (członków Grupy Wyszehradzkiej). Głównym celem niniejszej pracy jest zbadanie, jak ostatnie wydarzenia polityczne (Euromajdan, zajęcie Krymu przez Rosję oraz konflikt w Donbasie) mają wpływ na funkcjonowanie rdzennej ludności węgierskiej na Zakarpaciu. Ponadto, jak na indywidualne i rodzinne strategie oraz wzorce migracyjne wpłynęła polityka Węgier jako zagranicznej ojczyzny. Badanie opiera się na analizie danych statystycznych i dokumentów, źródłem uzupełniającym są wywiady przeprowadzone wiosną 2016 roku. Badanie pokazało, że dynamika emigracji z Zakarpacia w ciągu ostatnich kilku lat jest związana z sytuacją polityczną we wschodniej Ukrainie (w tym z poborem do wojska), oraz polityką Węgier, szczególnie z polityką naturalizacji, która preferuje osoby węgierskiego pochodzenia, ułatwiając im nabycie węgierskiego. Strategie życiowe (indywidualne i rodzinne), wzorce migracji i relacje transgraniczne pozostają pod wpływem regionalnej polityki prowadzonej przez państwa wyszehradzkiej czwórki. Autorzy twierdzą, że zachodni sąsiedzi osłabionego państwa ukraińskiego podejmowali dyskretne próby wykorzystania zmieniających się warunków geopolitycznych w celu zwiększenia swojego wpływu politycznego w regionie oraz pozyskania kapitału ludzkiego w postaci imigrantów. ; The research was supported by the IVF Standard Grant titled "Cross-border cooperation at the time of crisis on neighbor's soil" (No. 21510578) and in the framework of the bilateral agreement on scientific co-operation between the Ukrainian and Hungarian Academy of Sciences, titled: "Regional processes and global challenges following the 2008 crisis in Ukraine and Hungary" (No. 2326/2016). ; Ośrodek Badań nad Migracjami Uniwersytet Warszawski

According to the last Ukrainian census in 2001, 152 thousand people declared Hungarianethnicity in Transcarpathia. Since that time, there is no reliable and up-to-date data on theethno-demographic development of the region's population. It is especially hard to register themigration flows particularly salient since the outbreak of the armed conflict in East Ukrainein 2014. Based on four data sources (official Ukrainian and Hungarian statistics and tworepresentative surveys), the present study aims at revealing the volume of the permanent andtemporary migration of Hungarians in Transcarpathia and its impact on their number. Wefound that the same migration flow is associated with various figures by each of the data sourcesconducted with different methods and by different actors. According to the more reliable surveys,9 to 14 thousand ethnic Hungarians emigrated from Transcarpathia since 2001; consequently,the number of Hungarians is estimated at approximately 130 thousand people in the beginningof 2017.

Since February 24, 2022, we have been witnessing the next stage of what began in the 2014 Russo-Ukrainian War: a full-scale military invasion of Ukraine. For the first time in the history of the European Union, the intensive armed conflict is now approaching the border of the EU and Schengen Zone. The consequences of war: the refugee crisis, humanitarian aid, and economic problems have affected EU countries both immediately and directly. While keeping in mind the human tragedy and the tragedy of Ukraine, we would like to address a few important questions from the perspective of regional and border scholars. From this perspective, the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine is another stage of the new political order in Europe, preceded by the war in Ukraine that started in 2014, the 2015 migration crisis, 2021 Belarus-EU border crisis, which altogether – from the perspective of the border studies – could be described as re-bordering and securitization of borderlands. In this joint editorial, we address four main questions. Firstly, how we can interpret the Russian invasion in the wider, historical context, taking the frontier thesis as an explanatory category developed by Turner (1994). Secondly, the Ukrainian refugee crisis, in the context of the previous Belarusian-EU border crisis, is a multi-layered issue, where religion, gender, geopolitics, and rationales meet. Thirdly, apart from the military and political actions, war and refugee flux could be seen from the perspective of a grassroots movement of aid. Fourthly, the war in Ukraine brings uncertainty and questions about democracy and peace in Western Europe.