Bio

Ula Idzikowska is a freelance reporter based in Szczecin, Poland, writing in both Dutch and Polish. Her work focuses on migration, social justice, the climate crisis, and the experiences of marginalized communities—often highlighting the resilience and agency of women. Through intimate, human-centered storytelling, she brings global issues into sharp, personal focus.

She has reported from across Europe and the Middle East, covering stories from human trafficking in Malta to grassroots resistance in Lebanon. Her reporting was shortlisted for the True Story Award in 2024 and nominated again in 2025. She is a recipient of the Wrażliwy journalism award for a piece on the suppression of pro-Palestinian voices in Germany. In addition to longform reporting, she experiments with narrative formats, including comics and audio storytelling.

She is a 2025 Milena Jesenská Fellow for Journalists at the Institute for Human Sciences (IWM) in Vienna and a 2024 resident of the Visegrad Literary Residency Program.

Project

Her project, New Beginnings: Poles by Choice, explores Poland’s transformation into a country of arrival. It highlights the stories of immigrants from third countries and Poles returning after years abroad, tracing their paths of integration, the challenges they encounter, and the ways in which they contribute to an emerging, more diverse Polish society.

The project also critically examines how migration has been instrumentalized in Polish populist rhetoric. Through intimate, character-driven narratives, it offers a nuanced portrait of a country in transition—capturing the complexities of multiculturalism and inclusion.