Educational Strategies of Displaced Ukrainians in Berlin and Warsaw: The Role of Transnational Opportunity Structure

Abstract:

I investigate the educational strategies of displaced Ukrainian parents regarding their school-age children who fled to Poland and Germany. For this, I conduct an abduction analysis of a unique qualitative panel dataset of 88 semi-structured interviews of displaced Ukrainians with school-age children in Berlin and Warsaw in Summer 2022 and 53 follow-up interviews in Spring 2023. In my analysis, I identify three distinct educational strategies (1) online enrolment in Ukrainian school system while living in the destination country; (2) exclusive integration in the educational system of the destination country; (3) return to Ukraine and continue Ukrainian school curriculum on site.  The extent to which interviewees endorse one strategy over the others varies between Warsaw and Berlin and between our two interview waves. My analysis highlights the relevance of “transnational opportunity structure” to better understand migrant´s agency and strategies of action. I conceptualise this as the set of opportunities and constraints provided by the contexts in which migrants navigate.