Vulnerable Women: Negotiations Among Migrant Women in the Aftermath of the Ukraine War

Abstract

Women, in the past and to different extents in the present, have typically constituted a vulnerable although heterogenous social group. After the foundation of a “new” sovereign post-Soviet Union Ukraine in 1991, large numbers of women in poverty were exposed to human trafficking, prostitution, and labor. Since Russia’s war in Ukraine in 2014, many internally displaced persons and migrants have left their places of sojourn for other cities in Ukraine or to go overseas. This situation is exacerbated after Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022. The current situation constitutes a double-edged sword: on the one hand opportunities to seek more profitable work environments in wealthier cities and countries, but on the other hand a risk of being exploited. Others want to leave but cannot not due to constraining factors such as financial difficulties. With the aid of proculturation theory, N = 5 Ukrainian women were interviewed. Their discourses highlight a negotiation between the Ukrainian and the European in regard to familiar/unfamiliar spheres.