Straddling Lives

Scholarship on refugee transnationalism has long framed refugees’ attachments as gravitating toward either their country of origin or destination. This binary framing, however, overlooks how some refugees maintain simultaneous lives across borders. Drawing on repeated interviews with Ukrainian women who fled to Germany after the 2022 Russian full-scale invasion, we show that refugees at times live in two countries at once and explain why transnational living is possible. Uncertain whether to return to Ukraine, many maintained footholds in Ukraine through tending to property, cross-border remote work, and dual schooling of children, while establishing lives in Germany. We foreground structural factors, like digitalisation, that enable transnational living, challenging the assumption that it requires geographical mobility. We also highlight how socioeconomic background facilitates transnational living. Yet, our longitudinal material shows that transnational living is not static. As the war persists, we observe a gradual shift from sustaining lives in Ukraine to a stronger orientation toward Germany. This research challenges linear understandings of forced migration, highlights the role of socioeconomic positioning in shaping refugee experiences, and calls for further investigation into the implications of transnational living for both refugees and protection systems.