Marcin Deutschmann

The main problems of the integration of immigrants from Ukraine and proposed solutions in the eyes of representatives of the institutions of the Opolskie Voivodeship

The article presents the results of qualitative research conducted as a part of the conference titled Diagnosis of Needs and Problems Related to the Integration of Foreigners in the Opole Region, which took place in Opole on May 21, 2019. The research was conducted using a deliberative workshop method. The participants of the workshop were representatives of important institutions of the Opole Voivodeship who face the problem of a large number of immigrants from Ukraine. The participants were divided into thematic working groups: culture and religion, health care, public safety, the labour market and education. The article focuses on general problems that affect the functioning of immigrants in all these areas. In the analysis, the problems were divided into sociocultural (language barrier, cultural diversity, inadequacy of expectations to reality, ghettoization and historical education) and formal and legal problems (lack of systemic solutions and information, lack of knowledge about Polish institutions and legal order, etc.). Stereotypes which appeared in officials’ statements were analysed as a separate problem. The solution to these problems is to set up an Integration Support Institution that can offer support to immigrants with everyday life issues, as well as language or cultural training and provide them with all the information they need. The results give reason for further research, somewhat delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The study was conducted by sociologists from the University of Opole, in cooperation with the Opole University of Technology on behalf of the Marshal’s Office of the Opole Voivodeship.

Social defining of the risk behaviors is rooted in a diverse, multidimensional world of norms, values, rituals and discourses. Including social contexts of engaging in the risk behaviors and production of knowledge about them allowed us to go beyond standard cause-and-effect descriptions and examine these actions as an essential element of everyday practices and rituals of youth. The aim of this paper was to analyze the risk behaviors of youth in the framework of sociological categories of risk, reflexivity and interactional order. The paper is based on the results of the qualitative study conducted within the project “Problem Behaviors of Youth – Study in the Opole Region 2019–2020,” that attempted to capture the ways of defining and explaining the risk behaviors by the school youth, teachers and counselors. Such a sociological perspective bridges the gap in the prevention scholarship connected to insufficient attention paid to social ways of defining and meaning making connected to the risk behaviors of youth.