SOCIO-ECONOMIC TRANSFORMATION OF TRANSCARPATHIA DURING THE WAR: MIGRATION, BUSINESS RELOCATION AND ETHNIC DYNAMICS

Abstract

The relevance of the research: the full-scale Russian military invasion significantly transformed the everyday lives of Transcarpathia, the westernmost county of Ukraine. Probably thousands of ethnic Hungarians and other locals left their homeland, while – in parallel – hundreds of thousands of internally displaced persons (IDPs) from the war-torned territories found refuge in the region. After the population, businesses have also started to move to Transcarpathia, almost 400 companies have relocated their operations to the oblast, which is considered the safest region in the country. All these changes have an impact on the ethnic processes and economic conditions of the oblast. The subject of the research: peculiarities of socio-economic changes in Transcarpathia as well as migration trends and ethnic processes. Main goals of the research are to highlight the primary migration trends that have a significant influence on the socio-demographic transformation in the oblast. Furthermore, special attention is paid to the analysis of business life in Transcarpathia, focusing on the activities of Hungarian entrepreneurs. The further main aims of the present paper is to explore (1) how these processes shaped social, ethnic and economic relations in the investigated region?; (2) what are the main features of the newly emerging socio-economic trends in Transcarpathia?; (3) how has the geopolitical crises changed the situation of Hungarian businesses in the oblast? Research methodology is founded on mainly semi-structured interviews conducted with the Transcarpathian entrepreneurs as well as with the representatives of business and social organizations and experts in the field. The interviews were analysed using content analysis. Main results: based on this empirical research it can be stated that mostly in urban areas the proportion of Hungarians has fallen, while the settlement of IDPs concentrates there, resulting in population change. The assessment of the arrival of IDP’s and relocation of companies from the waraffected areas to Transcarpathia shows an ambivalent picture. On the one hand, the taxes paid by the relocated companies bring more resources to the county budget and improve the infrastructure. On the other hand, due to the newcomers, many of whom have higher financial and other social resources than locals, real estate and service prices have increased. Results also pointed out that Transcarpathians sometimes fearful of being excluded by IDP’s from their local socio-economic positions. Practical significance: the results obtained are important for identifying current socio-economic trends and problems of the studied region, as well as for the further investigations of ethnosocial processes, possible future points of public intervention, and strategic planning. Conclusions: although with the outbreak of the full-scale Russian-Ukrainian war, Transcarpathia did not become a military zone, socio-economic changes have fundamentally affected all spheres of life in the region, especially ethno-demographic processes and the business environment.