As Ukrainian refugees make their way to cities across Europe, cities are developing humane and creative responses to support them, and existing services are being tested and challenged. In Cluj-Napoca Romania , a small city with , residents, more than Ukrainians were accommodated within the first week after the war began. Beds have been set up at the train station so that refugees passing through can rest before continuing their onwards journey. They can have free hot food, and if they want to stay in the city, they will be supported with accommodation, food, and subsidies if hosted by a local, and they are permitted to work and their children to attend school.
A specialist agency has been appointed to support Ukrainians in finding work. Alongside this, the city opened various phone lines to support refugees โ one focused on translation and assistance, one focused on accommodation. These measures are just a few of those the city has implemented โ the list is long, and generous, and shows how a city can come together, adapt, and develop creative offerings in order to support people fleeing a crisis.
The City of Dortmund Germany has spent the past few years developing plans for a new One Stop Shop a space offering multiple services for migrants under one roof which, fortuitously, opened just one day before the Ukrainian war began โ its relevance was immediately felt by the city.
The team had to quickly adapt and did so by setting up temporary info points run by multi-lingual staff; mobilising additional multi-lingual workers; and quickly collating and translating relevant information which was distributed throughout the relevant networks. The team also gathered data on the numbers of migrants arriving, in order to help plan an appropriate response. Whilst digital interpretation may not be the best for building trust or for talking about sensitive issues, it does offer critical responsiveness in times of crisis, which in this instance was key.
Having staff, networks, and procedures in place to welcome and integrate migrants enabled the Dortmund team to make adaptations rather than having to develop entirely new systems.
