Description
This study focuses on Ukrainian refugees across Europe as a type of transnational diasporic actor in Ukrainian public diplomacy. As the war is still unfolding, refugees are constantly watching developments in the home country, especially because the majority long to go home (UNHCR September 2022). The working hypothesis of the study is that Ukrainian refugees will engage in initiatives to tell their personal stories and share experiences in an effort to build bridges with the host populations of countries that have received them, as well as to generate support for the war. Drawing on Vamik Volkan’s (2017) work on the psychology of “newcomers,” I will explore the relationship of Ukrainian refugees with the idea of home and with the Ukrainian government. Specifically, the focus will be on feelings towards the home country and its government. I will explore whether refugees feel supported, engaged, forgotten, or abandoned; and whether they seek to support the Ukrainian government’s public diplomacy efforts assuming roles of agents, instruments, and partners in public diplomacy (Brinkerhoff, 2019); or they emerge as disruptors (Dolea, 2022) and disengage with Ukrainian public diplomacy. The aim of the study is to trace emergent practices and discourses of Ukrainian refugees in 2 host countries –Romania and the UK – as well as the relationships they construct with home and the Ukrainian government, thus advancing studies on diaspora diplomacy (Ho & McConnell, 2017) and the role of emotions.
