NGOs in Ukraine’s Multi-Scalar Asylum Governance: Between Influence and Dependence on State Authorities

Résumé En

This article analyses the role of NGOs in asylum policies in the 2010s in Ukraine – a country often considered merely of transit for migrants. Which dynamics characterised the relationship between NGOs and the administration in a context of relative retreat of the state and low politicisation of asylum issues? While in Western Europe the state is frequently responsible for a large part of the funding of NGOs providing services to it, asylum NGOs in Ukraine received funding exclusively from international organisations and foundations. Better funded than the Ukrainian administration and following the norms of their donors, these NGOs took over tasks traditionally considered to be the responsibility of states. NGOs used their resources to gain access to the administration, with the aim of supporting some asylum seekers and more broadly to influence administrative practices in line with international asylum norms. While these resources seemed to place NGOs in a strong position, NGOs sought to maintain consensual relations with the authorities, depoliticising their work and avoiding to publish their criticism. By highlighting the ambivalent place of NGOs between influence and dependence on the administration, this study contributes to research on the role of NGOs in national and international migration regimes.