Displaced citizenship: war-driven political action and temporalities of displacement among Ukrainians

Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 led to the displacement of millions of people, many of whom fled abroad, grappling with survivor guilt and seeking ways to remain part of Ukraine’s fight. Based on ethnographic fieldwork with displaced Ukrainians in Prague, this article examines their war-related political activism, emphasising the immediacy of displacement, the war-intensified sense of diasporic responsibility, and the uncertainty of temporary protection. It situates their engagement within the relational landscape of the receiving society, where displaced persons negotiated political voice and recognition amid experiences of othering and self-imposed restrictions on political action as non-citizens. To capture these dynamics, the article develops the analytical lens of displaced citizenship. Rather than approaching displacement as a background condition, displaced citizenship foregrounds how urgency, rupture, and uncertainty become constitutive of political subjectivity. It shows how the immediacy of forced movement, grief, separation, and enduring concerns for those left behind generate moral and political obligations, while uncertainty about protection, return, emplacement, and societal reception shapes how displaced persons navigate political action in receiving societies. In doing so, the article contributes to debates on migration, citizenship, and political participation by recentring the temporalities of displacement in the study of political engagement.