Understanding the Language Sensitivity in Providing Services to Ukrainian Displaced Populations

Background and Purpose: The war between Ukraine and Russia has heightened language sensitivities. According to the All-Ukrainian Census of 2001, over two-thirds of the population (67.5%) gave Ukrainian as their first language, 29.6% Russian, and 2.9% another language. Since February 2022, growing numbers of Russian speakers have begun speaking Ukrainian. But others are unwilling or unable to make that change. As of April 2023, about 6 million Ukrainians are internally displaced, and another 8 million Ukrainians have fled the country. Millions of people are in need of safe shelter, food, water, medical services, and psychological support. This paper helps to understand the language sensitivity to better respond to the needs of the millions of displaced people and support them effectively.

Methods: Eight semi-structured online interviews with key informants and seven case study interviews with people who live in Ukraine were conducted. CLEAR Global recruited key informants via language service providers’ network: an online questionnaire on language use in Ukraine to 97 researchers, academics, and translators; 19 agreed to participate in a study and five of them were interviewed; three more informants were purposively sampled because of their specific expertise in the use of Russian, Romani and Crimean Tatar in Ukraine. Respondents for the case study were recruited via service providers and minority communities. Interviews were conducted in Ukrainian or Russian and focused on the respondent’s native language, language use, and linguistic identity. Interviews were transcribed using oTranscribe; reviewed by native speakers; translated into English using Deepl; reviewed by both Ukrainian or Russian and English native speakers; and coded thematically using Dedoose qualitative software, guided by an inductive approach to qualitative analysis.

Findings: Data analysis reveals that multiple language identities coexist in Ukraine but Ukrainian and Russian have long been the main languages of communication. The ongoing war started in 2014 and escalated in 2022, has heightened the sense of a national identity tied to the Ukrainian language. Speakers of minority languages other than Russian have always had to speak a second language in public life, either Ukrainian or Russian. The war between Ukraine and Russia heightens sensitivities about the choice to speak Ukrainian or Russian. For some, the choice to switch from Russian to Ukrainian is painful, for others liberating. Since February 2022, growing numbers of Russian speakers have begun speaking Ukrainian. Respondents stressed that most Russian-speaking residents of Ukraine have a good understanding of Ukrainian and can read and write it well. But still, they find it a little more difficult to speak it at first for lack of practice.

Conclusion and Implications: Findings highlight that social service providers and host communities present with a challenge to know how best to communicate with people fleeing the war in Ukraine, recognize the sensitivities of language choice, and act accordingly. The research suggests that the first exchange in any public setting should be in Ukrainian, after which the speakers can use the language, they are most comfortable with.