Social Networks and Agency in Forced Migration From Ukraine to Switzerland
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 17758581 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Oleksandra Tarkhanova (0000-0002-1206-6766, European Centre for Minority Issues, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Volume | 26 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Publication date | 2026-05-06 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Global Networks (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1470-2266 • E-ISSN: 1471-0374 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1111/glob.70056 |
| OpenAlex | W7160410192 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 47 |
This article examines how people displaced to Switzerland under Temporary Protection following Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine exercise agency through social relations and networks. Drawing on in‐depth interviews and participant‐elicited sociograms, I adopt a relational sociological lens to analyse agency in forced migration by situating action within embedded social relations and the temporal horizons of past experiences, present coping and imagined futures. The analysis shows that favourable legal provisions—particularly, state‐supported private hosting—together with high levels of popular solidarity expand displaced people's capacities for action by enabling social connections, fostering belonging and facilitating relational embeddedness. The article makes three contributions. First, it offers an empirical contribution to the growing literature on forced displacement from Ukraine by examining the effects of private hosting in Switzerland on migrants’ agentic processes. Second, it demonstrates how the social agentic engagements of forced migrants are mediated by how they make sense of their past and imagine their future, underscoring the role of temporality in relational agency. Third, it identifies a distinct form of agentic engagement in which networking and community building are not merely instrumental to agency but constitute its very expression
Action (physics) · Agency (philosophy) · Collective action · Forced migration · Participant observation · Social movement · Solidarity · Temporality · Migration and Labor Dynamics · Migration, Health and Trauma · Migration, Refugees, and Integration
Ukrainian Refugees’ Differentiated Treatment
Changing times
The presentation of the networked self
Networked Migrants and De‐Networked Policies—Examining the Nexus of Migration Regimes and Experiences Through a Relational Lens
Doing Agency through Personal Networks
Homestay accommodation as care work
The collapse of social networks among Syrian refugees in urban Jordan
Migrant agency
Dimensions of agency in transnational relations of Afghan migrants and return migrants
What if Networks Move? Dynamic Social Network ing in the Context of African Migration to Europe
Researching illegality and labour migration
Informing Integration Policies Through Research
Solidarity test
Self-selection of Ukrainian refugees and displaced persons in Europe
Becoming (Im)Perceptible
Unequal refugeeness. Race, gender, and co-belligerence from Poles in colonial Africa to Ukrainians in Poland
Navigating Displacement
New mobilities, old vulnerabilities
The networked refugee
Networking in contexts
The networked character of migration and transnationalism
Telling network stories
How social media transform migrant networks and facilitate migration
Uncertainties of Temporary Protection
Language roulette - the effect of random placement on refugees' labour market integration
Beyond 'Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay
The war has divided us more than ever
Some Reflections on Structure and Agency in Migration Theory
Migrants' Social Networks and Weak Ties
Talking Ties
Speechless Emissaries
Relational agency
Social Networks, Social Support and Social Capital
Towards a Sociology of Forced Migration and Social Transformation
What Is Agency
Manifesto for a Relational Sociology
Everyday Rituals of Migration
Crisis and Chronicity
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |