Why I Record Interviews with Ukrainian Refugees: An Attempt at Autoethnography

Abstract

In this article I try to explain the main reasons for my project: people want their stories to be preserved. In interviews with them, people said for example, “although someone is interested in this”, “now [after the interview] it’s a little easier for me”, “at last I can talk about it”. The interviewees were the people I met in Ukrainian refugees help centres. They are people who have decided to live; many people are depressed and are silent. I can’t help them, but I have to know who they are as this helps me understand other refugees. Hot-trace records help to track the dynamics of the narrative tradition about the refugee experience, both now and in the future. I consider this project to be a professional duty.

The most important characteristic of the interviews I recorded is that they were conducted using participant observation, because I was in similar conditions to other refugees. This method made it possible to draw important conclusions about the reasons for refusing interviews, favourite and taboo topics in the stories, and the influence of grand narratives on what the storytellers say. Being among refugees made it possible to see how different the situations of Ukrainians abroad are: some live with their whole families, while others live with an unhealed wound due to the loss of a relative; someone has a husband on the front line, someone has relatives left behind in the occupied areas; someone has lost a home, community of neighbours, job, and someone has left a more or less peaceful territory in search of a better life, taking advantage of the opportunities extended to Ukrainians through temporary protection.

A typical reaction of storytellers to their own interviews is to note that the conversation had a positive effect on their psychological self-organisation. People are grateful that they were listened to, that they were able to understand a lot for themselves; they are pleased that their story was interesting to someone else. This, among other things, is the importance of our work.