“Conditions and Quality of Life in Wrocław – New Residents of the City”
At the turn of 2022 and 2023, an interdisciplinary research project was carried out in Wrocław by Wrocław Municipality (the Department of Social Affairs of Wrocław City Hall, the City Strategy Office of Wrocław City Hall and the Wrocław Centre for Social Development), the University of Wrocław (Institute of Sociology, Faculty of Social Sciences) and the Stowarzyszenie Edukacji Krytycznej association.
The aim of the project is to identify the short- and long-term residence plans of migrants and refugees and to analyse how they subjectively assess their living conditions, as well as their expectations and attitudes towards the city. The research is crucial for developing municipal programmes that include new residents in the life of the local community and strengthen adaptation and integration processes and social participation.
As part of the project, quantitative and qualitative research and data analyses were carried out, and a research report will be prepared.
For several years, Wrocław has been a destination of increased migration, especially from Ukraine. Following Russia’s full-scale aggression against Ukraine in February 2022, forced migrants, commonly referred to as refugees, also arrived in Wrocław, further increasing the numerical dominance of this diaspora. People from Ukraine are not the only nationality contributing to the ethnic diversity of the capital of Lower Silesia. The second largest, yet seemingly little noticed, nationality – as shown, for example, by data from the District Labour Office (PUP) on the number of employers’ declarations of intent to employ a worker – is the Belarusian community, which was also given a voice in the study.
Research goals and the future of Wrocław
The overarching aim of the research was to obtain the necessary knowledge about the conditions, opportunities and expectations of migrants with regard to settling down and stabilising their lives, and thereby to develop a framework for possible municipal policy goals focused on integration, understood as inclusion in the community, accompanied by making municipal policies more coherent and more responsive to new phenomena and to the changing social composition of the city’s population.
The research was carried out using two techniques, CAPI and PAPI, from 5 December 2022 to 10 January 2023.
A total of 906 people took part in the study, of whom nearly 40% (352 people) declared that they wished to stay in Wrocław for at least a year.
Presentation of research results & media
On 15 June 2023, Przejście Dialogu (Passage of Dialogue) hosted a presentation of the first part of the results of the research carried out as part of the project “Conditions and Quality of Life in Wrocław – New Residents of the City”, at which a report on the analysis of quantitative data was presented.
The project was also discussed on the radio programme Oblicza Wrocławia, whose guests were Dr hab. Julita Makaro and Prof. Kamila Dolińska from the Institute of Sociology of the University of Wrocław. Listen to the programme here: link.