By: Cordula Dittmer und Daniel F. Lorenz

Original German version last updated on 05.03.2022, 11:00 am

Translated version published 15.07.2024

Refugee arrival, Berlin Central Station (© Daniel F. Lorenz)

Since the summer of 2015, we at the DRU focused on the KatFlucht project, and from October 2018 onwards, on the WAKE  project to examine the management of the refugee situation in 2015/16 by German and European civil protection and disaster relief agencies. It was unforeseeable that less than seven years later we would again be facing massive refugee movements in Europe. References to the end of World War II or to 2015/16 are being made in (social) media. The UNHCR  speaks of a rare exodus, as nearly a million people had to flee within a week. Our analysis focuses on the management of the situation by state and non-state actors, especially civil protection and disaster relief agencies: We are currently observing both very similar and quite different forms of management than in 2015/16.

Continue reading “Similarities and Differences in the Refugee Situations of 2022 and 2015/16 – Some Situational Observations and Theses from the Perspective of Social Science Disaster Research”