Paper short abstract:

This paper explores sensibilities of belonging to a European and/or post-socialist geopolitical space among young Ukrainian agricultural apprentices in Denmark as well as the range of opportunities this migration affords. It argues that this form of educational migration is principally characterized by uncertainty of outcome.

Paper long abstract:

This paper explores the dynamics of uncertainty and sensibilities of belonging to a European and/or post-socialist geopolitical space among young Ukrainian migrants who come to Denmark for a period of traineeship in the agricultural sector. The programme is facilitated by a special visa regime and provides an injection of cheap labour into the Danish countryside. While the presence of Ukrainian trainees, as well as trainees from Eastern Europe, in Denmark has provoked a great deal of negative press emphasizing exploitative aspects of this arrangement, the range of opportunities and new alliances it has created for the apprentices themselves has often been overlooked.

This paper suggests that 'uncertainty of outcome' characterizes this educational migration all the way through. Training experiences depend not only on individual abilities, but also on the nature of the actual relations established with farmers and the host society more generally. The process of learning thus presupposes the mastering of particular practical skills and navigation in a culturally and linguistically alien environment, the latter includes both the Danish hosts and young migrants from the former socialist block. Where for some a training trip to Denmark is just a one-off visit, for others, especially women, it becomes a prelude to setting up a family in Denmark, and for yet others, it is a first stepping stone for future serial migration and visitations. What is shared is a cultivation of the new sense of belonging to the European and/or former post-Soviet space under conditions of 'chronic uncertainty'.