Context

Immigration, with its benefits and challenges, has been an important and often controversial topic in European politics for decades. The outbreak of the war in Ukraine has brought the new urgency to the debate, as the number of forcibly displaced people in the EU increased dramatically. To meet the basic needs of the displaced, EU citizens responded with countless acts of solidarity, and the EU council activated the Temporary Protection Directive.

Goals

We seek to reach a deeper understanding of the roots of the favourable attitudes towards the displaced Ukrainian nationals in the EU, to monitor its dynamics, and to identify the scope of its consequences in terms of preferences for migration policies.

Methods

To accomplish this goal, we have designed a large randomized survey and distributed it in two waves to representative samples in six EU Member States. The questionnaire consists of several modules, including

• a survey of attitudes towards displaced Ukrainians and policies aimed at supporting them,
• an experiment investigating the consequences of correcting beliefs concerning the displaced Ukrainians,
• an experiment investigating the potential of triggering helping behaviour by means of “perspective taking”, and
• a conjoint experiment aimed at identifying characteristics of possible groups of displaced individuals that make EU citizens more vs. less willing to support these groups.

Expected outcomes

A technical report and several journal publications will serve to inform migration-related policymaking and communication.