Birmingham, UK//- Since May 2022, my family have been hosting a family from Ukraine as part of the Homes for Ukraine scheme. This scheme enables individuals, charities, community groups and businesses to sponsor Ukrainian nationals to come to the UK, allowing them to stay in their home or a separate property.
We signed up to this scheme and agreed to host a Ukrainian family for between six and 12 months. We have been hosting a family of three – a mother with two children under the age of six. Hosting this family represents a small contribution to the Ukrainian war effort given the everyday challenges faced by Ukrainians as Russia continues to bomb critical civilian infrastructure. Nevertheless, hosting has transformed the life chances of three Ukrainians as they are safe in England and gaining new skills. We have also learnt much about Ukrainian culture and history.
Hosting refugees by sharing one’s home is both challenging and rewarding. It is challenging as two families must learn to live with one another. This includes negotiating how to share a kitchen and learning how to accommodate different lifestyles, cultures, and aspirations.
Our Ukrainian guests are living in England, but their hearts and minds are back in Ukraine and with friends and family members who are fighting or recipients of Vladimir Putin’s constant attacks on civilian infrastructure. For us as hosts, we have learnt great tolerance as we have supported our guests and tried to ensure that they develop a lifestyle that suits their aspirations.
Sharing one’s home for a long period with another family will always come with highs as well as lows. This is only to be expected. There is so much to celebrate about the Homes for Ukraine scheme and two points are worth highlighting.
First, forced migration and finding that one’s family have become refugees is a life changing event. Trying to settle temporarily in a foreign country is challenging. At its best, the Homes for Ukraine scheme provides refugees with immediate and customised support as they adjust to living in the UK.
Their sponsors support their guests in dealing with some of the everyday challenges of living in the UK. This also includes assisting with accessing Universal Credit, obtaining school places, engaging with the NHS, and finally accessing social housing. We have seen our guests grow in confidence and integrate into our local community. As hosts we now have a much greater understanding and appreciation of the important role played by social housing and social support structures.
Second, the Homes for Ukraine scheme is much more than sharing one’s home with a Ukrainian family. It also involves us as hosts being supported by family and friends, and our Ukrainian guests benefitting from our friendship network. This is very much a community effort. Perhaps the weakest link has been the absence of more direct and tangible support from our local authority.
Some media reports have argued that ‘there is no exit strategy’ from the Homes from Ukraine scheme. There are multiple exit strategies, and each involves hosts working with and supporting their Ukrainian guests to develop an exit strategy that meets their needs.
Our guests were allocated social housing last week and are moving out this week. This is very similar to children leaving home for the first time and we have been supporting and facilitating this process. This includes spending much of the last weekend painting and decorating.
Our friends have rallied round and donated sofas, beds, other furniture, and kitchen equipment. In less than eight days everything needed to furnish a two-bedroom flat has been provided with no costs to our guests. The Homes for Ukraine scheme has encouraged the formation of new local social support mechanisms.
This highly localised network is focussed on supporting Ukrainian refugees, but the possibility exists that it can also be applied to developing solutions to other place-based societal challenges.
My household made the right decision to host this family. Hosting is a very rewarding experience. One of the long-term memories of hosting comes from the pictures drawn by the six-year-old boy that we have been hosting.
These always contain military images. Nearly all his pictures include a tank. In early November, he began to draw fireworks. One picture was of a firework display celebrating the death of the last Russian soldiers in Ukraine. There was an image of a bomb crater with a firework display.
These drawings illustrate that Vladimir Putin has a major problem of his own making. It would be impossible for Putin to win over the hearts and minds of Ukrainians. Putin has done nothing to enhance the life changes of Ukrainian or even Russian citizens. His actions are always negative and destructive rather than about encouraging development and growth.
His invasion of Ukraine has undermined the Russian economy and sent many thousands of Russians to a needless death. At the same time, his Ukrainian special military operation has forced Finland and Sweden to join NATO.
There has been another side effect of Putin’s special military operation. Forced refugee migration has created a network of individuals, charities, and community groups throughout Europe that now have an in-depth understanding and appreciation of Ukrainian culture and history. This network also has a direct understanding of Russia and its activities in Ukraine.
Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has transformed European understanding of the Ukrainian and Russian problem. For Ukraine this enhanced understanding has been beneficial as the outcome is united support and an appreciation that there must be a permanent solution to the Ukrainian problem and such a solution must be a free and independent Ukraine.
For Russia, there is an appreciation that many Russians do not support Putin’s war, but that there also needs to be a solution to the Russian problem. Russia requires a government that supports the Russian people and one that focusses on facilitating better outcomes for Russian citizens.
The Ukrainian family that we have been hosting for seven months are now entering a new stage in their lives. It must be remembered that this is still a severed family as their father is still back in Ukraine. In rock climbing, a free solo climb of a rock face is one without the use of artificial aids or safety equipment.
Our guests are going for the refugee version of ‘free solo’ as they depart this week to begin living in their own home. However, there is an important difference in that we will always be there to provide support, provide advice and encouragement. Thus, this is a form of free solo but with a supportive structure in place.
By John R. Bryson, Professor of Enterprise & Economic Geography, Birmingham Business School