GRANTEE
In 2014–2015, officially about 1.5 million people from the eastern Luhansk and Donetsk regions of Ukraine, as well as Crimea, were forced to leave their homes, fleeing Russian occupation and the war. In other parts of Ukraine, people have encountered labeling, being branded as criminals and pro-Russian traitors, and have dealt with negative stereotypes that reflect longstanding internal political divisions in the country. The full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine created a much larger wave of internally displaced persons (IDPs) and refugees, also from communities where discrimination against the 2014–2015 IDPs sometimes took place in the past. At the same time, in 2022, numerous former inhabitants of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions and Crimea became IDPs for the second time. The main direction for forced internal migrations was western Ukrainian regions where people from the more urbanized east and north found shelter in suddenly overcrowded cities, towns and villages. This new wave of forced migration revealed more various patterns of tensions between IDPs and local residents. The research on these patterns aims to offer ways to reduce tensions based on differences and failed expectations between local residents and forced resettlers. It is based on observations, focus group discussions, and qualitative interviews with internally displaced persons from different regions of Ukraine, as well as representatives of local communities. In addition, discourse analysis of related social media discussions is applied.