GMF Honors Tanja Wunderlich Through Alumni Leadership Action Project

Melanie Whittaker
On May 24 and 25 TLI Alumni Igor Ujhazi and Gyorgy Kakuk, two recipients of the Tanja Wunderlich Alumni Action Leadership Project, visited Romania as part of their fact finding mission on how Eastern European countries responded and plan

On May 24 and 25 TLI Alumni Igor Ujhazi and Gyorgy Kakuk, two recipients of the Tanja Wunderlich Alumni Action Leadership Project, visited Romania as part of their fact finding mission on how Eastern European countries responded and plan to respond to the migrants and refugees crisis. During their stay in Bucharest, the TLI alumni met with representatives of the Migration and Integration Inspectorate within the Ministry of Internal Affairs, visited a hosting center and met with representatives of the civil society and the International Organization for Migration. 

Romania, unlike her Balkan and Southern neighbors, has not been on the forefront of the migration waves. It has however been receiving approximately 250 migrants and refugees since last year and in the next four years it will receive 4,200 refugees. Though the authorities seem to be prepared for the intake, the biggest challenge will be the integration of these refugees into the Romanian society.

Additionally, Igor and Gyorgy were joined by Armenak Tokmajyan, Research Fellow at the Center for Conflict, Negotiation and Recovery, Central European University, Hungary for a night owl discussion during the “Europe’s East – Falling between the Cracks?” event organized by the Black Sea Trust for Regional Cooperation.  The Alumni Leadership Action Grant was awarded to a group of GMF alumni to further the policy debate evolving around the movement of people seeking refuge in Europe, mainly fleeing the war torn country of Syria.

The grant is named in memory of Tanja Wunderlich, who was a compassionate colleague at GMF for over 9 years, whose life was tragically taken by a car accident in November 2014. She dedicated her academic and her professional lives to the topics of migration and integration, always aiming to provide accurate facts and figures in often heated debates. She believed that the biggest policy advances come about if people from different disciplines come together, exchange, discuss and move innovative ideas and projects forward.