A Test of Urban Social Sustainability: Societal Responses to Kyiv’s “Non-traditional” Migrants
Author(s)
Popson, Nancy E.; Ruble, Blair A.
Abstract
Significant numbers of migrants from South Asia, Africa, and the Middle East began to arrive in Kyiv and Ukraine during the mid-1990s. These new migrants include students and guest workers who decided to remain in Ukraine following the collapse of the Soviet Union; refugees from conflicts elsewhere in the former Soviet Union, the Balkans, and the Middle East; and “irregular migrants” who have remained in the country illegally. Their arrival is one indication that both Ukraine and its capital are integrated into global economic and migration patterns. Given Soviet-era enforced autarky, neither Ukraine nor Kyiv has previous experience hosting large numbers of international migrants. Kyiv thus becomes one more among the world’s great cities in which urban social sustainability is being challenged. The challenge of sustaining and integrating migrants into Ukrainian life therefore has come to rest on the lowest level of social organization: neighborhoods, schools, associations, and a wide range of non-official institutions.
