Searching for therapeutic connections: Ukrainian refugee women with HIV in the EU

This article addresses healthcare experiences of Ukrainian refugee women with HIV in the EU. It shows that refugee expectations of healthcare starkly contrasted with their lived experiences. To explain this mismatch, I introduce the idea of therapeutic connections. Building upon the concepts of biosociality and the Imaginary West, I show that refugees' pursuit of HIV treatment in their host countries was about seeking both medicine and therapeutic connections with clinicians and other patients. Unable to find similar tight-knit communities (e.g., sex workers or women who use drugs) in their host countries and to forge relationships with clinicians that would go beyond patient-doctor encounters, many refugees decided to mobilize their therapeutic connections to Ukrainian vulnerable communities and clinicians to receive medicine and satisfy the need for belonging. In other cases, the mismatch between the expectations and experiences of healthcare led refugees to return home, even when it was not safe yet.