Volunteering Within Forced Migration and the Role of Identity : The Context of International Volunteers Working to Support Ukrainian Refugees in Poland

This study investigated the motivations and experiences of international volunteers’ who recently worked to support Ukrainian refugees in Poland. The study was particularly interested in exploring volunteers’ individual retrospective accounts, and what role the phenomenon of identity played before, during, and after volunteering. Six semi-structured interviews were conducted, and the study made use of Richard Jenkin’s (2014) theory on social identity. The study found the motivations to support Ukrainian refugees in Poland were influenced by an intertwining of individual and collective identification processes. It found that the interviewees’ self-identifications, whilst volunteering, were constructed based on the principles of similarities and differences, as well as on interactions. In addition, the study found that struggles concerning identity in the post-volunteering period were linked to collective identification and senses of guilt. The study aimed to complement the existing literature by adding a qualitative study about the displacement crisis from an international volunteer lens.