War (im)mobility: decision-making “to leave or to stay”

• Applicant: Privatdozentin Dr. Yuliya Byelikova
• Subject Area: Empirical Social Research ; Social and Cultural Anthropology and Ethnology
• Term: from 2024 to 2025
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 551541022

The proposed research focuses on the decision-making “to leave or to stay” in the context of war in Ukraine with the aim of advancing our understanding of war (im)mobilities. The study is designed in line with the aspiration-capability framework distinguishing between the macro and micro factors that “retain” (find attractive conditions at home), factors that “repel” (diminish the aspiration to migrate) and factors described as “internal constraints” (at the level of individual psychology) in line with. Schewel’s framework). The decision-making will be analyzed on three levels: individual, family and societal (following M. Boyd and E. Grieco). Since these levels are highly gendered, one of the research tasks will be to investigate the impact of gender in the decision-making processes. In order to achieve a more comprehensive understanding of (im)mobilities in times of war, the research suggests to study the decision-making of three groups of Ukrainians: 1) those who stayed in Ukraine; 2) internally displaced Ukrainians; 3) Ukrainian refugees in Germany. Taking a complex approach to mobility, in which moving and staying are seen as complementary will allow us to account for the diversity of macro and micro factors influencing people’s decision-making in the process to stay or to leave, and, to better understand the impact of underlining factors that go beyond economic and demographic characteristics. Data will be collected using the focus group method, which allows to capture the diversity of opinions, motives and arguments in decision-making. The research results will help answering following questions: Why do people with identical social-demographic profiles act differently under similar circumstances (i.e. why do some prefer to stay while others to leave)? Which factors shape their decision-making? How are decisions linked to gender?

• DFG Programme: WBP Position