Warmth, Laughter, and the Smell of Buns: Perceptions of Home among Forced Migrants from Ukraine

In the context of migration studies, the concept of the home offers a research lens that allows for a deeper understanding of migrants’ material and social worlds, both in their country of origin and in the countries in which they settle. Re-establishing a home is important for all migrants, but each age cohort has different needs and priorities. Youth is generally seen as a period of life in which people have increased mobility, which is often seen as an advantage. At the same time, youth is a period of searching for one’s identity and personal and professional future. This fluid situation not only creates opportunities but also makes members of this group vulnerable, as they often have insufficient resources to establish themselves in a sustainable way.

As part of the Ukraine Research Network@ZOiS, 45 interviews were conducted with young Ukrainians who were forced to leave Ukraine after the start of the full-scale Russian invasion in 2022 and are now living in Germany or the Czech Republic. They talked about what home means for them, the importance of feeling at home, and their attitudes towards Ukraine and their host countries.

A physical home but no feeling of home

A combination of forced migration, educational mobility, and frequent changes of accommodation has blurred interviewees’ sense of home. After more than two years of forced migration, most of the study participants are in a transitional stage. They no longer unequivocally perceive Ukraine as their home, while feelings of home in the host countries are precarious. Home is often understood in a future perspective, as a place where people’s lives may become more comfortable and stable in the months or years ahead, rather than in terms of current conditions.

The experiences of war and forced migration lead young people to rethink the role of the home, whose intangible characteristics are more important than its physical structure. Loss of the physical home alters the values that migrants hold dear and influences their future strategies. Many interviewees perceived their former attachment to their material home as a problem, as many houses have been occupied or destroyed in the war. The intangible component of the home – connections with family and friends – has taken on a new meaning as something that remains with a person regardless of their physical location.

For young Ukrainians, recovering a sense of home in their host country has little to do with material objects. Many have adopted a minimalist strategy of reducing their physical possessions, as they are focused on the possibility of moving again and the thought of improved living conditions. This minimalist strategy is also shared by young people who have decided to remain in their host country.

Home vs ‘non-home’: issues of freedom and agency

For young Ukrainians, the ideal home of the past is the parental home – the place where they were born and grew up, and a place they associate with care and security. Home, for many interviewees, is linked to feelings of warmth, laughter, and familiar smells (e.g. the smell of buns). In peacetime, leaving the parental home, for example to move to another city for education, was perceived as a transition and the start of an independent life associated with hopes and prospects. As young people’s contacts with their parents became weaker, their feelings of freedom and independence strengthened. By contrast, forced migration reinforces migrants’ connections with their home and relatives, which may point to an increased need to restore a place of security, stability, comfort, and safety as well as receive moral and material support.

Young people’s feelings of home, both in Ukraine and in their host countries, are formed by positively perceived networks of social contacts – family, close friends, and neighbours – as well as professional contacts. A component of these networks is agency: the opportunity to initiate events and take an active part in activities. An important aspect of the home is the ability to communicate with others directly, without the distractions of electronic devices or social media.

By contrast, the idea of ‘non-home’ in the context of displacement is perceived through uncomfortable places that are shared with others and not controlled: living in a hostel, a rented flat, or as a guest with local people. Uncomfortable living conditions and the lack of a feeling of home erase the boundary between the home space and the outside world. In this situation, the image of the home serves only as a future goal for migrants, while their actual place of residence is perceived as a work space amid their efforts to realise this goal. The feeling of non-home is also associated with weak social contact and a general decline in social competence, which often provokes identity crises and an inability to correctly understand and read the reactions of others.

Long term consequences

The creation of a home is a complex process that often occurs as a result of migrants becoming accustomed to a new way of life, rather than as a result of deliberate decisions. Important aspects of this process are the emergence of a future perspective, clearly defined periods of stability, and opportunities to reunite with relatives. Meanwhile, a lack of attachment to a home, a loss of its perceived value, and the formation of a sense of multiple homes intensify transnational practices while creating a series of ‘in-between’ places.

For young people, being forced to migrate at a time of their lives when they are actively searching for their identities creates additional tensions and leads to significant shifts in the timeline of major life events, for example by delaying marriage, childbirth, and careers. These effects may not be noticeable now because of young people’s more optimistic perceptions of their situations, but these shifts will have repercussions in the longer term.

Oksana Mikheieva is a professor of sociology at the Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv and a fellow at the Ukraine Research Network@ZOiS, funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research.