Managing protracted displacement: How anchoring shapes ‘agency-in-waiting’ among middle-class Ukrainian female refugees in Berlin

Abstract

The Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 resulted in one of the largest refugee crises in Europe since World War II. A significant number of Ukrainian refugees, mostly women and children, have sought asylum in Germany, where they have been granted temporary protection status. These refugees found themselves in a state of protracted displacement, with uncertain futures. This article examines how middle-class Ukrainian women, with children, envision their futures and how this shapes their present. Engaging with the literature on protracted displacement and the concept of ‘agency-in-waiting’, we examine how this relatively privileged group variously respond to living in transit. To enable closer analysis of these variations, we extend examinations of protracted displacement with Grzymala-Kazlowska’s idea of anchors. This allows us to consider how previous social-class positioning, and also other external and internal structures in places migrated to, intersect to reveal the anchors facilitating or constraining ‘agency-in-waiting’.