THE WAR IN UKRAINE AND GENERATION Z. UNDERSTANDING YOUNG CITIZENS’ PERCEPTION ON REFUGEES

In the last decades the issue of refugees and immigrants has become more transparent and a subject of interest for the common citizen. Many authors discuss and analyze how people perceive immigration and the issues related to them. However, we know very little about what young citizens, members of generation Z, think about refugees and immigrants. The paper addresses this gap in the literature and analyzes how young citizens perceive immigrants and refugees that arrive in Romania. It uses Romania as a single-case study and semi-structured interviews conducted in September 2022-October 2022 with young citizens coming from different socio-demographic profiles, to explain the variation in how they perceive the recent Ukrainian refugees and other immigrants. The main purpose is to explain the perceptions variation related to the current crisis generated by Russian Federation. The findings indicate that young citizens' perceptions are influenced by a combination of general attitudes toward the political system and society, education, and specific attitudes about potential external threats.