Mykola Homanyuk

The social changes caused by the Russian-Ukrainian war have affected various elements of Ukraine’s social structure. It is very important to pay attention to the changes that have been taking place in various minority groups, including ethnic ones. The project is based on a two-stage process. The first stage entails desk research of open-source data, covering 10 different ethnic minorities. This serves to identify current debates and the specificities of ethnic minorities’ main concerns as well as aspects of their representation. Based on the desk research, a subgroup of four (Roma and three other) minority groups will be selected for a study consisting of in-depth interviews with representatives of each minority. As our research question addresses manifestations of belonging, identity, and citizenship, an overarching theme we want to focus on concerns the practices of a minority and its representatives, including interactions with both state and local authorities institutions as well as the accompanying administrative processes. 

It is hard not to notice that during this war a separate Roma narrative has emerged in Ukraine. Now we are conducting in-depth interviews with Roma from different countries on the general topic “Roma and War.” Our aim is to understand what is happening to Roma identity in conditions of war and in the context of this Roma narrative. We would like to find out what has changed (or not) with the ethnic and civic identity of the Roma during the war; indeed, our research is already ongoing. We are going to use this funding as humanitarian aid for our Roma respondents who are living under occupation. The total number of planned interviews is no less than 30. Each case will include an audio file, general information about the respondent, a script of the interview in the original language, and a script in the Ukrainian language. We also plan to collect information from social media, as well as videos and photos related to Roma and the war discourse.