The exemplary mobilization of civil society, the population and state institutions in the face of a large number of displaced persons in Ukraine as a result of the war caused a wave of international gratitude for Romania and other states in the region. But more and more people are asking what is the situation now, 5 months after the start of the conflict? How many migrants from Ukraine transited through Romania, and how many stayed here? How does this number compare to other countries in the region? What is the profile of displaced persons who remain in Romania? What is happening with the attitude of the population towards Ukrainian refugees? What about other refugees or immigrants in Romania? Has saturation and topic fatigue set in, as many predicted? This article aims to answer these questions using the latest data and available research.

After 3 decades, during which Romania was seen only as an important country of emigration, from which a large part of the population left, immigration to Romania has been steadily increasing in the recent period, becoming an increasingly present phenomenon in everyday life. Especially in the last decade, we could see a tripling of the number of people born outside Romania living in Romania and a doubling of the number of foreign citizens living in Romania. however, Romania was not the main destination of immigration. At least until now.

But this situation may change in the context of the war in Ukraine. The flow of people displaced by the war from Ukraine to Romania in the 5 months since the beginning of the conflict amounted to approximately 830,000 border crossings from Ukraine to Romania out of a total of more than 9 million crossings and 490,000 in the reverse direction from Romania to Ukraine out of a total of 3.5 million. In other words, 1 out of 10 exits or entries from Ukraine took place through the border crossing point in Romania, which makes it one of the most important transit countries to and from Ukraine.

The latest data indicate that over the past 5 months since the beginning of the conflict, more than 5 million people have been displaced outside of Ukraine. The speed with which this number was reached is astonishing – in just a few months in the case of Ukraine compared to several years in the case of other conflicts (for example, in the case of Syria it took several years to reach 5 million people displaced abroad). Besides, we can see it 6 out of 10 emigrants from Ukraine choose to settle mainly in neighboring countries in contrast to previous migration flows, when 7 out of 10 displaced persons arriving in Europe went to 3 main destinations (Germany, Austria and Sweden). But it also means that countries neighboring Ukraine, such as Romania, which are not “traditional” destination countries for refugees or immigrants, host large numbers of displaced persons without the necessary infrastructure and facilities.

The number of displaced persons from Ukraine remaining in Romania was approximately 84,000 as of mid-July, and of these approximately 45,000 received some form of temporary protection (including several hundred nationals of other states displaced from Ukraine). In other words, approximately 1 out of 10 immigrants from Ukraine who entered Romania from Ukraine remained here, which made Romania one of the 10 most important destination countries, on the same level as Slovakia, the Republic of Moldova or Bulgaria, but far below Poland, Germany, Turkey, the Czech Republic, Italy or Spain. If we compare the number of Ukrainian citizens displaced in Romania with the total population, we can see that Romania still remains an important destination, although it is not among the top ten.

Another relevant aspect here is that only half of displaced persons from Ukraine who remained in Romania applied for some form of temporary protection – this is one of the lowest indicators compared to other countries in the region where the majority of displaced persons from Ukraine applied for some form of temporary protection. One of the possible explanations is that even displaced persons who stay in Romania for a while plan to come to countries such as Germany (26%), Bulgaria (14%), Poland (6%), Canada in the long term. (5%) or Italy (5%), where most say they have relatives or friends (48%) or that they offer a better system of international protection (17%). Another explanation could be the fact that displaced persons who choose Romania come from the beginning with the intention of staying here temporarily until the conflict in Ukraine is resolved, as suggested by several studies on this topic. Last but not least, it should be noted that, compared to other countries in the region, immigrants from Ukraine who come to Romania are more likely to come from regions of Ukraine that are not currently on the front line of the conflict or under Russian control (Odesa 39% , Mykolaiv 16%, Kyiv 13%, Kharkiv 5% and Chernivtsi 5%).

More than 84,000 people displaced from Ukraine can be considered a relatively large number when considering Romania’s immigration profile: in 2021, approximately 137,000 foreign nationals were registered in Romania, of which approximately 80,000 were third-country nationals (non-I) . In comparative terms In the context of this flow of displaced persons from Ukraine, Romania has one of the largest increases in the number of foreign citizens compared to the previous year. Although the pace and number of people crossing the border and settling has slowed in recent months, a number of projections show that by the end of the year we will have around 100,000 people displaced from Ukraine, almost double the number of foreign nationals living in Romania compared to 2021.

The topic of refugees in its various forms has been one of the most important in debates in many countries of the world. In some countries, it was even the main topic of voter mobilization (for example, in Germany, Austria, Sweden, Italy, etc.). This topic was marginal in the context of the Romanian elections, but it is likely to become important in future elections if we take into account the changes that took place in the context of the war in Ukraine. For example, in a 2021 study, approximately 45% of respondents were in favor of accepting refugees in Romania, while approximately 55% were against it. Another 2022 survey shows that more than 85% of respondents favor accepting a large or very large number of refugees from Ukraine and nearly half of respondents would support accepting many or very many refugees from Syria.

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