This research project investigates how Ukrainians fleeing the war experience accessing rural communities and how they are received in these communities. The research is carried out ethnographically in Finland and Hungary with three groups: previous seasonal workers with existing contacts in rural regions and/or their adult family members, professionals with degrees in education or health care, as well as youth in the late school-age years.
The project combines theories, methods and approaches of applied linguistics, sociolinguistics, and rural studies, and focuses on the role of language in the process of accessing a new community. Our research provides knowledge on what kind of opportunities for language learning, engagement and belonging the rural environment offers to Ukrainians, and how their presence transforms the linguistic and social reality of rural communities.
