The thesis is devoted to the establishment of the spatio-temporal features of forced migrations in the border regions of Eastern Ukraine (on the territory of Donetsk, Luhansk, and Kharkiv regions), analysis of their structural and demographic characteristics, identification of the problems of internally displaced persons and finding ways to solve them, studying the features of their integration into host communities.
The thesis reveals the theoretical and methodological foundations of the human-geographical research of forced migrations based on the analysis of foreign and domestic research, in particular, the conceptual and terminological apparatus of the study was formed, which characterizes the essence of the concepts of “migration system,” “regional migration system”, “migration process”, “forced migration”, “internal forced migration”, “internally displaced persons”.
The prerequisites for the emergence of forced migrations in the East of Ukraine have been analyzed. The settlement, political, socio-demographic, economic, ethnolinguistic, cultural, and mental ones were highlighted, preceding the main reason for forced migrations – the military conflict in the Donbas. The stages of settlement of the Eastern Ukraine’s border regions and the appropriate types of migration were highlighted; the current state of the demographic situation and its impact on forced migrations were analyzed; the economic situation in the border regions of Eastern Ukraine in the pre-conflict (in 2013) and post-conflict (at the end of 2018) period was compared, its impact on forced migrations was revealed; the current migration situation, in particular, all migration flows, intraregional, interregional and interstate migrations were analyzed.\
Spatio-temporal analysis of internally displaced persons in the border regions of Eastern Ukraine has been carried out. The study region accounts for 64.85 % of the total number of forced migrants in Ukraine, and their greatest concentration in the region is observed along the demarcation line, which was influenced by territorial factors, as well as in large cities and regional centers – Kharkiv, Mariupol, Kramatorsk, Sievierodonetsk, Bakhmut, Sloviansk, etc. The age and gender structure of IDPs, the specifics of their employment have been analyzed. Women predominate in the sex structure, pensioners predominate in the age structure of IDPs of all administrative-territorial units of the border regions of Eastern Ukraine, except for the Barvinkove district of Kharkiv region. The share of pensioners in IDPs’ age structure is more than 80 % in the Luhansk region’s northern districts – Bilovodsky, Kreminsky, Markivky, Milovsky ones. The share of the working-age population among the studied regions is the largest in Kharkiv region (43.5 %), the working-age population is the predominant age group of forced migrants in the city of Kharkiv and Yasynuvatsky district of Donetsk region.
Based on the sociological methods, in particular, a survey conducted among 207 internally displaced persons in Donetsk, Luhansk, and Kharkiv regions, the problems of IDPs, the peculiarities of their integration into host communities were identified, which made it possible to propose concrete ways to improve the situation of forced migrants. According to the survey results, the problems faced by forced migrants are divided into socioeconomic, socio-psychological, institutional, and legal ones. A survey was carried out among the local population of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kharkiv regions (384 people in total) to identify the population’s attitude towards internally displaced persons, and its results were summarized. A SWOT-analysis of the impact of internally displaced persons on host communities has been developed.
Spatial modeling of the integral influence function on the number of IDPs in cities of regional significance and areas of border regions of Eastern Ukraine has been carried out; models with base radiuses of 10, 15, 20, 25 km were constructed, anomalous values were analyzed, settlements to be the cores of excessive concentration of IDPs were identified. The ranking, grouping, cluster analysis of cities of regional significance and districts of the border regions of Eastern Ukraine have been carried out according to the structural and demographic indicators of IDPs (25 indicators in total). As a result of the cluster analysis carried out among the cities of the studied region, five clusters (groups of cities) have been identified with similar features of forced migration, making it possible to predict the further scale of forced internal displacement of the population. Four clusters have been identified among the districts of the border regions of Eastern Ukraine.
The regional migration policy measures on forced migration in the border regions of Eastern Ukraine have been developed in four directions: social, medical, and psychological, informational and legal, integration of IDPs into host communities.
