Ukrainian war migrants in Poland: lives of the adolescents and their mothers

The article describes the methodology and results of the author's qualitative study of Ukrainian war migrants in Poland two years after the start of the full-scale war. Target group: adolescents aged 14-18 and their mothers who left for Poland after the invasion and now live in Warsaw. 12 families (12 mothers and 13 of their children) were analyzed by the face-to-face semi-structured in-depth interview method (N = 25). The term of the study is January-March 2024. The main limitation of the study is the shift towards more prosperous families because it was difficult to involve in the study those who have a difficult life situation and / or a very traumatic experience. The guides of the interviews with women and adolescents were basically the same, except that the topic of “work” in the interviews with the women was replaced by the topic of “education” in the conversations with the adolescents. The conducted research made it possible to supplement the existing data and to improve the understanding of the life path of Ukrainian war migrants in Poland. A little more than half of the women are married at the time of the study; in a quarter of the families the husband is also in Poland. Every third family is in the state of a divided family, when the woman with her children (child) is in Poland, and the husband is in Ukraine. A sixth of the families divorced in the period after leaving. For the majority, Poland became the country of first choice when they were fleeing the war in the spring of 2022. After two years, almost all women are surrounded by Ukrainians, social ties with Poles are weak, and integration is practically non-existent. On the other hand, integration through education is more successful among adolescents, they are able to establish social ties with Polish peers (with the exception of those who plan to return to Ukraine in the near future). Intentions to return, as well as social expectations, differ greatly between women and adolescents. Also, the factors promoting adaptation and barriers to it turned out to be different.