Expressive Cultural Practices as Mobile Forms of Belonging During Forced Displacement: Ukrainian Refugees in Europe
Expressive Cultural Practices as Mobile Forms of Belonging During Forced Displacement: Ukrainian Refugees in Europe

Summary/Abstract: Forced displacement involves not only the movement of people across borders but also the relocation and transformation of the cultural practices that travel with them. This article examines expressive cultural practices, such as theatre, music, dance, and visual arts, as mobile forms of belonging that accompany displaced populations and contribute to processes of cultural continuity, psychosocial negotiation, and social re-anchoring in host societies. Drawing on publicly available documentation and selected case studies of initiatives involving Ukrainian refugees across diverse European contexts, complemented by comparative examples from other displacement settings, the article analyzes how expressive practices function as arenas in which identity, memory, and collective experience are negotiated under conditions of rupture and uncertainty. Rather than approaching culture solely as a tool of psychosocial support or socio-economic inclusion, the article situates expressive practices within broader anthropological debates on mobility, heritage governance, and relational belonging, arguing that forced movement entails not only physical relocation but also the circulation of meanings, embodied repertoires, and collective imaginaries through which belonging is reconfigured in displacement.

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