WHERE TO SETTLE

About the Work Following the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, almost 10 million refugees from the occupied territories have crossed the Polish border. Poland has welcomed more Ukrainian refugees than any other nation. Many Ukrainians were looking for shelter in major Polish cities which were already overcrowded, causing rental hikes, increased competition for jobs—all amid an unprecedented rise in inflation. It became evident, that to deal with the increasing stream of refugees, the movement had to be redirected to smaller cities. Mastercard swiftly acted by creating the "WhereToSettle" digital platform. This initiative aimed to redirect refugees to smaller Polish towns to alleviate pressure on major cities and support local communities facing depopulation. The platform aggregates spending insights and data. Thanks to partnerships, it assists refugees in finding housing and employment by considering their current life situation. The tool showcases economic opportunities and living costs in different parts of Poland based on anonymized transaction data, salary averages, and housing prices. Through a digital and social media campaign featuring locals inviting refugees to explore their towns, the platform successfully engaged 242,170 unique users, with 73,700 completing forms. An estimated 20.05% of Ukrainian refugees benefited from this tool, as indicated by the data from WhereToSettle. Feedback was overwhelmingly positive, with 92% of engaged Ukrainians finding the tool useful. Moreover, this initiative significantly enhanced Mastercard's perception in technological, modern, and social aspects, boosting usage intent among non-users by 57% among Poles and 80% among Ukrainians. The impact extended to an estimated 300,696 individuals benefiting from the platform, considering an average family size of 4.08 persons and an estimated 1.5 million Ukrainian refugees. Overall, Mastercard's "WhereToSettle" initiative leveraged data and technology to positively impact communities, societal inclusion, and economic opportunities for refugees while supporting smaller Polish towns and addressing the refugee crisis.