'There is no ground for xenophobia', the expert spoke about Ukrainian refugees in Moldova

Alexander Makukhin, Doctor of Political Science, migration specialist, and managing administrator of the dopomoga.gov.md project, told Socportal about this.

Moldova is a polyethnic country. We have an extensive distribution of different languages and nationalities. It removes a significant part of the problem that government officials speak the same language as refugees. Many things are related to the basic structure of behavior. With Ukrainian refugees, we have plus or minus the same form of behavior. There is also one religion - Orthodoxy. People do not differ much - Ukrainian refugees from the inhabitants of Moldova. Until you talk to a person, you will not know if he is a refugee or not, the expert says.

According to him, there is no ground for xenophobia.

There was a story where they tried to spin the topic that refugees from Ukraine were behaving incorrectly and oppressing the local population. But this topic was quickly suppressed on the social plan, as this is not true. Moldovan society quickly said: these are people who are no different from us. And this story about “they are no different from us” works both ways - Ukrainians do not want to leave Moldova because they understand that they are the same as the locals, unlike the situation, for example, in Germany, - says Alexander.

There are schools in Moldova where, among other things, the Ukrainian language and the history of Ukraine are taught.

Moldavian calm multi-ethnicity is based on the ability of the Moldavian society to agree on any issues. The expert explains that Moldovans are used to the fact that people with a different language and culture can live around them.

According to him, in 30 years, Moldovan society has come a long way and accepted that we are all different. And paradoxically, the war in Ukraine has made the society here even more understanding.