(Non)paradoxes of temporary protection: Ukrainian female refugees in search of their own time and place

Abstract

Temporary protection status shapes the aspirations of its holders. It limits their future perspectives; however, this does not mean that it abolishes their agency. Previous research on temporary protection status schemes using a primarily transnational perspective has focused on how temporary protection status visa holders experience ‘limbo’ or ‘permanent temporariness’ but, by neglecting class, tended to overlook what happens to their position in the economy of a given country. Based on biographical interviews and focus groups with female temporary protection status visa holders from Ukraine in Czechia and Slovakia, this study asks how they perceived their agency and what position they were looking for and finding for themselves in the labour market. The findings highlighted the subtlety of the factors that influenced female visa holders’ aspirations. Crucial was time both as a resource and as the main dimension of agency, which predetermined relative power over the terms and conditions of employment. Hence, rather than focusing on how temporary protection status shapes identity at different scales, therefore, the paper suggests to study how it functions more like a filter that distributes temporary protection status visa holders according to the needs of a country’s division of labour, paying attention to the very subtle factors that underpin this selection.