"Childhood in refuge. Experience of forced migration from the perspectives of children and their grown-up caretakers" is a research project that will be carried out by Dr Paulina Bunio-Mroczek at the Faculty of Economics and Sociology of the University of Lodz over the years 2023-2024 as part of the IDUB Grants for Young Researchers (3rd edition). The project is rooted in the new sociology of childhood, whose aim is to study the social worlds of children, exploring children's perspectives, their ways of experiencing reality and their meaning-making. One of the important strands of the new studies of childhood is childhood in a situation of danger, such as war and exile.
The project objective is to provide knowledge about childhood in refuge, with a particular emphasis on the forced migration related to the refugee crisis on the Polish-Belarusian border (since summer 2021) and the war caused by Russian aggression in Ukraine (since 24 February 2022).
The number of refugees in Poland has increased rapidly over the past year, and there are children among them. It is still difficult to precisely determine their number though. Little is known about the situation of refugee children who are currently in Poland, their experiences, the stories they have lived, their current living conditions, their ways of coping with the war and forced migration as well as their adaptation to new places for their living. As part of my research, I want to organise meetings and interviews with refugee children from Ukraine, both those who have come here with their family members, as well as those from Ukrainian care institutions evacuated from war zones, and children who have arrived to Poland crossing the border between Poland and Belarus in groups of refugees coming from the Middle East, as well as with their adult guardians. In the research, in addition to the scientific layer, ethical issues related to ensuring the research participants' subjectivity, respecting their dignity and rights, and taking care of their emotional well-being are crucial for me. For this reason, the project has assumed cooperation with a child psychologist and researchers who speak the languages of the research subjects and are familiar with their cultural patterns
– Dr Paulina Bunio-Mroczek, Department of Applied Sociology and Social Work, Faculty of Economics and Sociology of the University of Lodz.
Dr Paulina Bunio-Mroczek's academic interests include issues of childhood. She conducts research in the field of new childhood studies. She is also implementing the project "Dzieci - miasto – rewitalizacja". Trzy podejścia metodologiczne w badaniach społecznych z udziałem dzieci w nurcie nowej socjologii dzieciństwa – badania pilotażowe" [Children – city – revitalisation. Three Methodological Approaches in Social Research with Children in the New Sociology of Childhood – Pilot Studies] under the MINIATURE programme of the National Science Centre.
Source: Faculty of Economics and Sociology Development Centre, University of Lodz