At the time of this study the war in Ukraine has been going on for one year and three months. Russia invaded Ukraine on the 24th of February 2022 with the purpose of erasing the Ukrainian state and its national identity. The purpose of this study is to investigate how Ukrainian citizens view their national identity during an ongoing invasion of their country, and the war that followed that invasion. In addition to that, this study investigates if and how Ukrainian refugees in Sweden have acted to maintain their Ukrainian identity during the time they are staying in Sweden. The study is based on previous research about national identity, nationalism and identity. The study uses two main theoretical approaches: national identity as an imagined community and national identity in relation to ethno-symbolism. The study is a qualitative study that has used eight semi-structured interviews which were performed during a period of three weeks in April to May of 2023.After a thematical analysis of the collected information from the participants this study points to that the perceived national identity with Ukrainian refugees in Sweden is strong, and the participants feel that it has grown stronger since the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The participants also describe a strengthened unity between Ukrainians, both in their physical context in Sweden but also with Ukrainians who are spread out in the rest of the world. According to the participants in this study this unity will continue after the war has ended, and this will have a positive effect on Ukrainians within Ukraine. In contrast to what has happened after earlier conflicts between Ukraine and Russia, the result of this study indicates that the positive changes that has happened regarding the Ukrainian national identity and community since the invasion will be maintained after the war, and this thanks to the collective memory with Ukrainians.According to the participants of this study Ukraine as a nation and Ukrainians as a people will evolve and free themselves from the Russian propaganda that has, both internally and externally, shaped the Ukrainian national identity. This will be done by the Ukrainian people, joining to tell, spread and preserve Ukrainian history, culture and tradition as well as the Ukrainian language.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:hj-61572 |
| Date | January 2023 |
| Creators | Hörnmark, Stina |
| Publisher | Jönköping University, HLK, Globala studier |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | Swedish |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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