Promotion of Intercultural and Refugee-specific Competence

The project "Promotion of intercultural and refugee-specific competence for refugees and host societies during the Russia-Ukraine crisis" is a joint research project with participants from Germany and Ukraine.

To fund this project, an application was submitted under the funding program Guest Research Program for Refugee Ukrainian Scholars - Volkswagen Foundation.

The project arose from the dramatic events that Europe was confronted with on the 24^th of February 2022. The offensive of the Russian army in Ukraine has caused millions of Ukrainian war refugees to leave their country of origin, Ukraine, and many thousands more will follow. The mass flight to the countries of the European space raises many problems in the adjustment of refugees to the new socio-cultural, natural and economic conditions.

This wave of forced migration represents a special case for cultural diversity, as temporary stays of the refugees are expected for the time being, but the experiences gained may have a long-term impact on the societal cultural composition as well as on collective attitudes towards cultural diversity.

The research project "Promotion of intercultural and refugee-specific competence for refugees and host societies during the Russia-Ukraine crisis" focuses on the topics of attitudes towards migration, conditions for successful social integration and support of refugees, attitudes of Ukrainian refugees towards the length of stay in Germany, mental health among refugees and framework conditions for the development of global/intercultural competence in business and society.

The goal of the project is to contribute to the creation of a common European cultural space and successful integration as a solution to the global challenges of flight and migration.

The applicant, Prof. Dr. Genkova, is a professor of business psychology (W2) at the Faculty of Business, Economics and Social Sciences at the Osnabrück University of Applied Sciences, where she holds seminars and lectures in the fields of diversity and intercultural business psychology, among others.

In addition to her teaching activities, Prof. Dr. Genkova has been working on or leading research projects for almost thirty years. Her main focus is on in-depth research on intercultural competence and communication as well as on the topic of diversity.

More information about Prof. Dr. Genkova´s publications and research projects

Project participants: Dr. Smokova is an associate professor at the Faculty of Social Welfare and Practical Psychology at Odessa National I.I. Mechnikov University, specializing in "Intercultural Relations and Sociocultural Adaptation", as well as "Psychology of Tolerance and Discrimination", "Transformation of Value Orientations".