Navigating “patriotic guilt" in refuge: virtual interviews with female Ukrainian refugees during Russia’s full-scale invasion

• In Event: 20862 - Section on International Migration Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 7: Refugees

Abstract

Refugees face pressures stemming from symbolic boundaries that divide those who have migrated to safer areas from compatriots who remain behind under conditions of ongoing armed conflict. The construction, interpretation, and negotiation of these boundaries shed light on how refugees' relationships with their home communities shape their adaptation as immigrants, relationships with compatriots in the receiving society, and other social behaviors.Interviews we conducted via Zoom with Ukrainian women who fled to Germany during Russia’s full-scale invasion illustrate how various forms of patriotic guilt permeate their perceived relationships with both real and imagined communities in Ukraine. Our informants describe a range of emotions and experiences related to patriotic guilt, as well as the strategies they use to mitigate it.
By highlighting how patriotic guilt serves as both a source of stress and motivation for action, we deepen the sociological understanding of refugee agency and the nexus between forced migration and ethno-national identity. Migration scholars have challenged the traditional divide between refugees and labor migrants, emphasizing that forced migrants exercise agency despite external constraints. However, studies of refugee agency often frame it as exceptional and politically-oriented rather than routine. Migration scholars have also highlighted guilt as a driving force behind remittances, return migration, and disrupted transnational ties. Additionally, associations between trauma and feelings of shame and guilt among refugees are known to affect their experiences in receiving communities. However, the interplay between survival guilt and heightened national identity during armed conflicts remains overlooked. We argue that navigating patriotic guilt through everyday boundary work, relationship maintenance, and small acts of charity is a pervasive manifestation of refugee agency, facilitating social-psychological adaptation through the assertion and reconfiguration of ethno-national identity.

Authors

• Anna Popovych, University of Wisconsin-Madison

• Theodore P. Gerber, University of Wisconsin-Madison