How the Resource is Structured

The two modules and their units

The educational resource is organized into two main modules: the first of these takes a contemporary perspective; the second a historical approach.

Within each of the two modules, there are four units, as follows:

Module 1: The contemporary perspective

Unit 1. Ethical and Methodological Challenges: Researching in Times of War and Displacement, by Viktoriya Sereda and Oksana Mikheieva; Student Assistant: Varvara Konstantynova

Unit 2. Visual Politics: Constructing the Representation of Refugeehood and Displacement, Alina Mozolevska; Student Assistant: Olya Vaskovets

Unit 3. Migration Data: Possibilities, Limitations, and Politicization, by Lidia Kuzemska; Student Assistant: Eduard Lopushniak

Unit 4. Volunteering in Wartime: A Hybrid Response, Oksana Mikheieva; Student Assistant: Diana Makedon

Module 2: The historical approach

Unit 5. Defining Refugees: Crisis and the Emergence of Refugeehood, by Oleksii Chebotarov

Unit 6. Nationalizing the Landscape: Tourism and Belonging, by Vladyslava Moskalets

Unit 7. NGOs and Migration Governance: Migration Processes in Late Imperial Eastern Europe, by Oleksii Chebotarov

Unit 8. Return Migration: The Crimean Tatars from Soviet Exile to Their Homeland, by Martin-Oleksandr Kisly

The three thematic clusters

The two modules of the resource explore the migratory experiences of diverse ethnic, linguistic, and religious groups. This comprises population movements that take place in multiple directions and take a wide range of forms, from voluntary migration, such as tourism, to forced deportations of entire communities, displacement due to war (both internal and cross-border), and even situations where movement is restricted or entirely prevented.

Within the two modules of the resource there are three thematic clusters, each reflecting distinct but interconnected perspectives on migration, displacement, and mobility in Ukrainian and East Central European contexts.

Together, the clusters provide a conceptual map of how migration is experienced, and remembered, represented and governed across time and regimes. And what are the main ethical and methodological challenges embedded in the knowledge production on migration and its estimated numbers.

Knowledge production, categorization, and counting in migration research

This cluster fosters a strong dialogue between units from both the historical and contemporary modules, offering critical reflections on how migration-related categories are produced, counted, and politicized. It historicizes the concept of the refugee and examines how categories of displacement are shaped through social, legal, and institutional processes. The cluster is organized around key thematic areas:

• ‘labeling’ – including language sensitivity and difficulties of categorisation;
• ‘counting’ – sources and lacunas of migration data and politicisation of numbers;
• ‘knowledge-production’ – the ethical and methodological challenges researchers encounter when studying war-affected societies.

In Unit 1. Ethical and Methodological Challenges: Researching in Times of War and Displacement, Viktoriya Sereda and Oksana Mikheieva examine the dilemmas of conducting research with displaced populations under conditions of war, highlighting challenges in methodology, categorization, and the researcher’s positionality.

In Unit 3. Migration Data: Possibilities, Limitations, and Politicization, Lidia Kuzemska investigates how migration statistics are created and utilized, revealing that the data is often incomplete, politicized, and embedded in power relations.

In Unit 5. Defining Refugees: Crisis and the Emergence of Refugeehood, Oleksii Chebotarov focuses on the Jewish refugee crisis in Galicia (1881–1882), illustrating how refugeehood was negotiated in imperial contexts prior to the development of an international legal framework. The author also highlights the entanglement and intersectionality between refugeehood and migration processes.

Contested belonging: mobility, nationhood, and representation

This cluster examines the interplay between movement and return, as well as visual representations of the migration, as well as their impact on national identity, territoriality, and symbolic geographies. It highlights how state and community actors construct belonging through spatial and visual practices.

In Unit 2. Visual Politics: Constructing the Representation of Refugeehood and Displacement, Alina Mozolevska analyzes how forced migration is represented through visual media and how images shape public understandings of refugeehood, introducing concepts such as grievability and self-representation.

In Unit 6. Nationalizing the Landscape: Tourism and Belonging, Vladyslava Moskalets examines how interwar tourism in Poland played a significant role in nationalizing contested territories and how minority actors developed alternative travel narratives.

In Unit 8. Return Migration: The Crimean Tatars from Soviet Exile to Their Homeland, Martin-Oleksandr Kisly analyzes the long-term return of the Crimean Tatars, focusing on exile ideology, memory, and the remaking of home after forced displacement.

Civic responses and humanitarianism

Focusing on bottom-up responses to migration and displacement, this cluster highlights civil society initiatives and informal volunteering networks—both contemporary and historical—that step in when state structures are weakened or excluded.

In Unit 4. Volunteering in Wartime: A Hybrid Response, Oksana Mikheieva examines how wartime volunteering has become a hybrid civic practice, blurring boundaries between state, civil society, and business while fostering resilience and solidarity.

In Unit 7. NGOs and Migration Governance: Migration Processes in Late Imperial Eastern Europe, Oleksii Chebotarov analyzes the historical development of NGOs’ involvement in migration governance. It showcases the Kyiv Jewish Emigration Society’s role in organizing migration from the Russian Empire, providing a historical perspective on non-state migration infrastructures.

Additional resources and reading aids

At the end of each module you will find an extended reading list, and at the end of module one a helpful glossary where many terms used in the four units making up the contemporary perspective module are explained.

Emboldened text within each unit is designed to allow you to pick up on key points and concepts as you read.