Organised by the Institute of Political Studies of Polish Academy of Sciences, Committee of Migration Research of Polish Academy of Sciences and Centre of Migration Reserach, University of Warsaw (with Ignacy Jóźwiak from our team as co-organisor) on 3-5 December 2025 brought together an amazing and inspiring group of researchers and activists discussing the contemporary Polish-Ukrainian relations.
These discussions and presentations you can also watch online:
First day of the conference, 03.12 https://youtube.com/live/S9JnTJ627rU?feature=share
Second day of the conference, 04.12 https://youtube.com/live/vd4DEKYunpI?feature=share
Third day of the conference, 05.12 https://youtube.com/live/BG6LsXIqIUY?feature=share
Durign the conference Kamila Fiałkowska and Elżbieta Mirga-Wójtowicz presended our team’s work on collective accomodation centres as spaces of unequal inclusion. Drawing on our long-term ethnographic fieldwork conducted in three locations across Poland, where the main group of residents of colleective acommodation centres are Ukrainian Roma, their presentation examined how evolving legal and policy frameworks intersect with everyday experiences of residents,institutional workers, local authorities, and surrounding local communities. Located in rural areas or on the outskirts of towns, these CACs have become spaces marked simultaneously by care, control, tension, and local controversy. Ukrainian Roma among displaced people from Ukraine face compounded vulnerabilities due to entrenched stereotypes, racialised narratives, and exclusionary discourses circulating in both local and national contexts. Their experiences reveal how temporary protection can be differentially enacted, offering security for some while deepening precarity for others.
Sonia Styrkacz participated in a panel discussion on the experiences of Ukrainian Roma children in Polish educational institutions, emphasizing the critical role of the reception context – such as the limited preparedness of local schools to accommodate refugee children – and the pervasive gaps in knowledge regarding the specific educational needs and challenges faced by Roma children. She also highlighted their particularly precarious position as residents of collective accommodation centres, underscoring the intersectional vulnerabilities they experience.
