Volunteer Movement of Ukrainians in Great Britain: Social and Cultural Aspects

Author

Avtomonov Oleg

a postgraduate student of the 1st year study of M. Rylskyi Institute of Art Studies, Folkloristics and Ethnology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (Kyiv, Ukraine).

ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0009-0001-1064-3232

Volunteer Movement of Ukrainians in Great Britain: Social and Cultural Aspects

Abstract

The article is dedicated to Ukrainian immigrants in Great Britain and such a socio-cultural phenomenon as volunteering. The consonance of the unprecedentedly developed national volunteer movement during the large-scale phase of the current Russian-Ukrainian war with its foreign component, in particular with the forms of organizing the Ukrainian volunteering in Great Britain, is emphasized. The manifestations of the volunteer movement among Ukrainians living in Great Britain, in particular among the «fifth wave» of Ukrainian emigration abroad, which has occurred after the start of the large-scale Russian invasion are analyzed and summarized in the article. The main areas of activity of volunteer and charitable organizations of Ukrainians in Great Britain are also revealed. The defining features of modern Ukrainian volunteering in the United Kingdom are also described.

Special attention is paid to highlighting the close cooperation between Ukrainian and British volunteers representing different nationalities, cultures and confessions, which gives the volunteer movement an obvious international dimension in this country. The positive role of self-organization of Ukrainians in Great Britain into volunteer and charitable organizations is emphasized. Generalizing conclusions are also made, outlining certain features of modern Ukrainian volunteering in Great Britain.

Keywords

volunteering, social and cultural aspects, Great Britain, ethno-identification practices, the «fifth wave» of Ukrainians’ emigration, self-organization of migrants.

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