“To live your life not in vain”. Ukrainian academics’ experience of forced migration in Poland

Abstract

The authors consider the forced migration of Ukrainian academics to Poland caused by the Russian-Ukrainian War, particularly the expansion of communication between the Ukrainian and Polish academic communities and the experience gained in this process. The study is based on the analysis of a body of interviews with Ukrainian academics in forced migration and their Polish colleagues who were directly involved in aiding Ukrainians. The interviews were collected as part of the oral history project “‘Moving West’: Ukrainian Academics in Conditions of Forced Migration (2014-2023).” The authors focus on several main themes: Ukrainian migrants’ decision to leave the country and Polish respondents’ decision to get involved in helping Ukrainian refugees (the moment of‘challenge’), making sense of the new reality (the moment of the ‘meeting of two cultures’), adaptation to the new conditions, and reflection on the experience gained (the moment of ‘construction of specific strategies of behavior’).