Austria finds new solutions as hospitality towards Ukrainian refugees sours
In the inaugural edition of the Fallout: As hospitality towards Ukrainians decreases across Europe, Austria, unexpectedly, could have a solution as it seeks ways to better integrate refugees into the economy.
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A red-headed boy dribbled a soccer ball as two girls chased each other toward a gated play area, passing a leftover Christmas tree draped in tinsel at the center of a makeshift cafeteria. A couple of young women sat down to a meal of pasta and tomato salad. This yawning sports hall in Vienna once operated as an intake center for Ukrainian refugees, managed by the organization Train of Hope. Now it functioned more like a community center. I sat with Manuela Ertl, a volunteer with the organization.
“The government was saying we are doing everything that is necessary,” Ertl told me. “But the actual government itself was doing nothing at all. They just outsourced it to private people.”