How Ukrainians’ Experience of Labour Migration is (Re)constructed by the War in Ukraine. A Study of One Biography

Abstract

The author undertakes an analysis of the experience of labour migration in the context of the effects of the war in Ukraine, based on a case study reconstructed from a biography. The theoretical part focuses on the influence of culture on the adaptive situation of migrants, analysing, among other things, acculturation processes and acculturative stress in the context of cultural and social tensions. The research part, based on the analysis of the biographical-narrative interview, identifies the key stages in the lives of the migrants studied, such as the stage of growing up and opening up to the world, the stage of the decision to migrate to Poland and the enchantment with Poland, and the stage of the war in Ukraine. The semantic and structural analysis of the empirical material allows us to construct an answer to the posed problem: How does the war in Ukraine (re)construct the experience of labour migration? It leads to a conclusion in which the perspective of war as something that completely changes the experience of labour migration is clearly drawn.  Migration ceases to be something associated with the economic betterment of one’s lot, and becomes something characterised by fear for one’s loved ones. Fear for those who are there – in Ukraine, there – where the war is going on.