Small Municipalities and Ukrainian Migrant Crisis

The chapter analyses how small municipalities in Czechia responded to the influx of refugees from Ukraine following the Russian invasion in February 2022. Situated within debates on multilevel governance and local crisis management, it asks: (1) what national framework was adopted for managing Ukrainian migration and what role was assigned to municipalities, (2) what problems small municipalities faced during different phases of the crisis, (3) how they addressed these problems, and (4) how higher tiers of public administration supported them. Empirically, the study draws on 24 semi-structured interviews with mayors of municipalities under 2,000 inhabitants, selected according to their exposure to Covid-19 and to early waves of Ukrainian refugees, and analysed through qualitative content analysis. The findings distinguish three groups of municipalities: those with prior experience of labour migration, those without such experience but strongly affected by refugee inflows, and those only marginally involved. Across these types, the initial phase was marked by national-level chaos, unclear responsibilities and information deficits, which pushed local actors to improvise ad hoc solutions based on dense social networks and volunteer infrastructures. As coordination with regional and national authorities gradually improved, key structural ambiguities and data deficits persisted. The chapter argues that although small municipalities displayed considerable adaptive capacity and resilience, continued reliance on informal, personalised crisis management is not sustainable and calls for more differentiated, predictable and better coordinated support from higher levels of government in future migration-related crises.