Access to Education as a Human Security Requisite in the Context of Ukrainian Refugees Inclusion in Romania

At the beginning of 2022, Romania faced an impressive wave of refugees from Ukraine, following the Russian invasion on the 24th of February. The extraordinary mobilisation of the civil society and authorities to receive war refugees from Ukraine – mostly women, children, the elderly and people with disabilities – led to a rapid change in the migration and asylum policy in Romania and in the European Union. By means of statistical data and legislative documents as well as content analysis of semi-structured, audio-recorded interviews with Ukrainian refugees, Romanian citizens from the business environment, academia, the public sector and NGOs, as a non-representative sample, the paper addressed the research question whether education influences human security in the context of the inclusion in Romania of Ukrainian war refugees. The present mixed methods study revealed that, despite the lack of a legal framework and linguistic barriers, the access of Ukrainian children, war refugees to Romanian schools and kindergartens was ensured, as part of human security. The Ukrainian refugee crisis enhanced the collaboration between the Romanian public and private sectors and civil society, which calls for a greater future involvement of the civil society, alongside competent authorities, in immigration policies.