Resettlement and relatedness among displaced Ukrainian women in Denmark (RE-GENDERING)

Contrasting earlier patterns of forced migration with men leaving women and children behind, women increasingly flee without male relatives and obtain asylum based on gender under the Refugee Convention. The 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine has generated its own distinct feminized displacement pattern, with women and children comprising the majority of those who have fled the war. This new feminized displacement has forced women to take on burdens of both care and breadwinning while abroad. This project studies how this this “re-gendering” play out among Ukrainian women in feminized displacement in Denmark, who due to transnational contact with kin and (direct or indirect) affiliation with Ukrainian institutions, live in multiple and contractionary gender political contexts and disputes.

The project is organized into three complementary work packages, focusing on different groups of actors and social settings. WP1 explores women without children, WP2 focusses women with children, and WP3 explores the institutional actors that engage with the women on an everyday basis (e.g., social workers, teachers, children’s teachers, and pedagogues, health care professionals). This division covers critical intersectional differences (e.g., age, life stage, generation) and the different empirical settings of women in everyday life; yet cross-case analyses secure conceptual synergy.