Ukrainian-American non-profits in 2014–2022: constructing diasporic Ukrainian identity through personal and collective narratives

Abstract

ABSTRACT In 2014–2022, the Ukrainian-American non-profits took a leading role in supporting Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. While before Russia’s full-scale invasion, these organizations were focused primarily on humanitarian projects, since 2022, they took up the challenge to launch advocacy initiatives, fundraising campaigns, and rallies, provide military and medical assistance to the Ukrainian armed forces, and deliver humanitarian aid to all parts of Ukraine. The paper reveals the key narratives of the Ukrainian-American non-profits, which represent the diasporic Ukrainian identity in the USA. These narratives focus on the Ukrainian-American diaspora agency, Ukrainians and Ukraine, Ukrainian local and global subjectivity, and critical geopolitical issues. Articulated in interactions with local and global online and offline communities, the narratives become multifunctional representations serving to inform, report, inspire, consolidate, and engage the audience. The paper shows how these non-profits are making efforts to narrate a shared past, engage in the present, and visualize the future. Despite the heterogeneity of the Ukrainian diaspora members, represented by different migration waves, their narratives unveil a distinct identity on the individual, institutional, community, and national levels. The discursively constructed diasporic Ukrainian identity is dynamic, heterogeneous, and performative, and it combines ethnic and civic identifications.