Handling Present and Future Uncertainty: Ukrainian Transnational Families in Sweden and Romania Strategizing Their Lives in Protracted Displacement

• Oksana Shmulyar Gréen ^[1] ; Svitlana Odynets ^[1]
  1. [1] University of Gothenburg

     University of Gothenburg

     Suecia

     
• Localización: European Families Facing Hard Times: Challenges, Strategies, and Family Policies / Vida Cesnuitytė (ed. lit.), Gerardo Meil Landwerlin (ed. lit.), Jesús Rogero García (ed. lit.), Irma Budginaitė‐Mačkinė (ed. lit.), 2026, ISBN 9781836088950, págs. 193-209
• Idioma: inglés
• Enlaces
  • Texto completo
• Resumen

  • This chapter explores how Ukrainian transnational families who sought protection abroad due to Russia’s war in Ukraine are strategizing their lives in a situation of protracted displacement. The focus is on families from various parts of Ukraine, where one or more family members migrated because of the war while older children and other kin stayed in Ukraine. It draws on two research projects, both focusing on displaced Ukrainians, one in Sweden and another in Romania. Representing two rather dissimilar host institutional contexts, these countries share some unexpected similarities. Having these important differences and similarities as a point of departure, the chapter analyses how Ukrainian transnational families are navigating the capacities within these two institutional contexts and strategizing their everyday lives in relation to their familial responsibilities in the host societies, but also back in Ukraine. Theoretically, we use the concepts of temporalities of uncertainty, agency-in-waiting and protracted displacement as well as situated transnationalism. Eight family cases and two national applications of Temporary Protection Directive policy are analyzed. The analysis highlights that while “escape to safety” does create opportunities that some Ukrainians are embracing, at least for the time being, others consider it an opportunity to restart their life projects. It also produces exhaustion and fatigue with uncertainty among displaced Ukrainians, leading to suspending engagement in a future that may not materialize. All four strategies have implications not only for the participants’ own well-being but also for the lives of other members of their transnational families.