‘I Thought I Left for Two Weeks’: War Related Crises and Coping Strategies in the Narratives of Female Forced Migrants from Ukraine in Lithuania

Abstract

The paper examines the data of qualitative interviews with female forced migrants from Ukraine, who came to Lithuania after the full-scale Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The paper analyses the narratives of war and migration to identify the main crises encountered by research participants, the ways in which the research participants construct themselves and coping strategies in the face of war-related crises. The crises that emerged during the interviews could be grouped into those experienced at the individual (emotional, psychological), family (separated families) and community (fragmented communities in the occupied territories, the longing for Ukraine while being in displacement) levels. The research participants constructed themselves as active agents capable of making decisions and taking actions necessary to minimise or control those crises.