‘Home is just a feeling’: Essentialist and anti-essentialist views on home among Ukrainian war refugees

Abstract

The notion of home, understood as a distinct and meaningful place is frequently explored in migration studies. It emerges as an especially significant point of reference, though it is often marked by ambiguity and ambivalence, especially in the narratives of war refugees. This article examines how Ukrainian refugees in Poland define and experience home, exploring the evolving meanings of home in the context of displacement and resettlement. We conducted semi-structured interviews with thirteen refugees and forced migrants who left Ukraine after Russia's full-scale invasion on February 24th, 2022. Using a theoretical framework of essentialist and constructivist (anti-essentialist) notions of place, we identified three major themes in the way refugees perceive home. The first theme highlights attachment to home, where refugees express feelings of security, stability, and rootedness. The second reveals a profound sense of ‘non-home’, where home is lost or unattainable. The third theme explores how refugees attempt to reconcile a fixed sense of home with their experiences of mobility, reshaping home through multiple, meaningful sites. By integrating these theoretical perspectives this study offers a nuanced understanding of how displacement and migration reshape the concept of home for refugees.