Being Together through ICTs : Transnational Family Practices in the Context of Ukrainian Forced Migration

Abstract: According to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR, 2023), some 117.2 million people will be forcibly displaced or stateless by 2023. In this scenario, a large number of families will have to be reconfigured within a transnational setting. The ways in which they maintain their familiar ties and their feeling of being close despite the distance is worth further research. Since the Russian full-scale invasion, several countries in the European Union provided temporary protection for the first time to those arriving, who were mainly females with some of their relatives. The demographic reality of this displacement and the novelty of temporary protection open up a fruitful context to address family maintenance. This thesis explores how Ukrainian females who sought temporary protection in Burgos (Spain) have experienced the ties to their families across distance, delving in their meanings of being together, their practices of co-presence and the role of ICTs in them.