The making of ‘Mary Poppins’ migrants: analysing German discourse on displaced Ukrainians 2022–23 through fictional film

ABSTRACT

Building on insights from Migration Studies and International Relations, we investigate constructions of Ukrainians who arrived in Germany due to conflict-induced displacement during the first year of the Russian-Ukraine war. To do so, we analysed reporting on Ukrainian women in two German major weekly news outlets (Der Spiegel and Die Zeit). Here we take a unique approach – drawing on key points of, and illustrative quotes from, that analysis, and reading them alongside the fictional film Mary Poppins. Doing so helps us understand German discourse around displaced Ukrainians. Specifically, our unique reading of refugeehood and deservingness helps us demonstrate how familiar, yet fictional, stories can be deployed to critically interrogate and better understand real-world extraordinary political responses towards refugees. Overall, we suggest that by analysing representations of Ukrainians through this fictional lens, we contribute to denaturalising ‘common knowledge’ about displaced people often taken for granted in public discourse and public policy.

KEYWORDS:

• Forced/conflict-induced migration
• film
• fiction
• Germany
• Ukrainian women refugees

Introduction

After invading and annexing the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine in 2014, on 24 February 2022, Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. While the war has been primarily concentrated in eastern Ukraine, more than 16 million people country-wide – over a third of Ukraine’s population – are affected by the invasion and ongoing conflict (Düvell 2023). In the first months of the war, about 200,000 people per day left Ukraine (Centre for Research & Analysis of Migration (CReAM) 2023). During the year following the invasion, over 8 million Ukrainians experienced conflict-induced displacement and crossed international borders to seek safety (UNHCR 2023a). This significant, ongoing displacement of Ukrainians represents one of the largest refugee movements since WWII (Düvell 2023).

Ukrainians who have crossed international borders have largely headed to European Union (EU) member states as their primary destinations (Eurostat 2023). This likely relates to several key factors, including: geographical proximity and free transport offers facilitating movement (European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights 2023), the presence of a pre-existing diaspora in the EU offering important support prospects (Düvell 2023), and finally, and perhaps most importantly, pre-war policy allowances for free movement and temporary residence within EU member states (Düvell and Lapshyna 2022; see: Council Directive 2001/55/EC and Council Implementing Decision (EU) 2022/382, 4 March 2022).

The Ukrainian government’s declaration of martial law and general mobilisation prohibits men¹ aged 18–60 from leaving the country. Hence, the vast majority of Ukrainians arriving in host countries are women and children (Eurostat 2023). In this way, like many previous movements of people (see e.g. Gururaja 2000; Al-Ali 2002; Pruitt, Berents, and Munro 2018), this conflict-induced displacement of Ukrainians is distinctly gendered.

Drawing on insights from Migration Studies and International Relations (IR), we note that this context features both similarities to, and stark differences with, recent major conflict-related people movements to the EU. While noting demographic similarities and differences between Ukrainians and other displaced people, our aim is not to compare different groups. Rather, we specifically examine how Ukrainians are constructed in public discourse, and how these constructions both reflect and contribute to receptive responses to Ukrainians seeking safety. In doing so, we consider what these discourses are assuming or taking for granted and what familiar stories they might reference. Moreover, given the limited research to date considering gender in this context, we assert that better understanding is needed of whether and how ideas about gender may intersect with other factors in influencing understanding, treatment and experiences of Ukrainians. Likewise, we are curious to consider several questions: How, if at all, do gender and intersecting characteristics² factor into popular representations of displaced Ukrainians? Through critically engaging with these representations, can we productively challenge, or even flip the script, on what has become naturalised as common knowledge when it comes to conflict-induced displacement? Finally, what are the political implications of these representations now and in the future? Asking such questions may offer insights about migration politics around the world.

While these questions are salient across the EU and indeed globally, here we focus on Germany as one important national case study. Specifically, we undertake a political analysis of representations of Ukrainian women who arrived in Germany in the first year post-invasion. Examining Germany’s understandings and treatment of peoples experiencing conflict-induced displacement is undoubtedly significant. After all, according to the UNHCR (2023b), Germany ranks third globally for greatest numbers of refugees hosted, and is the only Global North country in the list of top 5 hosts. Moreover, according to Eurostat, as of February 2023, Germany was hosting the most Ukrainians, with over a million Ukrainians acquiring temporary protection status there.

Noting this, our research considers how displaced Ukrainians are constructed in German public discourse. To do so, as part of our broader research project, we conducted an analysis of German news reporting on Ukrainian women who arrived in Germany during the first year following the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine. Although numerous sources could be relevant, to facilitate deeper engagement with these issues while considering the year-long time frame, we opted to focus the initial analysis on two key publications, weekly news outlets Der Spiegel and Die Zeit. Both are among Europe’s most widely circulated³ news sources and noted as major news sources with high sales, agenda setting capacity (Leitmedium), and a following among the German political elite (Vollmer and Karakayali 2017, 2). While we aim to report the findings from that analysis in more detail elsewhere, here we briefly summarise key points of the findings, drawing on these and utilising selected quotes to illustrate our case for reading this discourse alongside Mary Poppins.

To further interrogate this complex situation, we engage insights from IR research on aesthetic global politics, as this scholarship demonstrates some of the powerful ways arts can productively challenge dominant ways of thinking about and practicing politics (Bleiker 2009). For example, research considering the ‘visual turn’ in IR (Bleiker 2018) has considered numerous ways IR scholars use film, including within their research methodology (e.g. Callahan 2015; Harman 2016; Pruitt 2021). While these approaches tend to reflect real-world experiences in some way, even if they are deployed to create fictionalised accounts, here we consider film more broadly to engage closely with one that is undeniably fictional and does not explicitly address the policy matter (migration) under consideration. In doing so, we draw inspiration from Park-Kang’s suggestion that fiction can help us productively use our imaginations when considering matters of global politics, and that perhaps paradoxically, fiction can even help us to think more deeply about reality, fact, and truth in politics (2015, 362).

With this in mind, we interpret our data with the help of Mary Poppins, a Disney fictional musical fantasy film (Stevenson 2018) about a magical nanny and her lasting impact on her host family.⁴ We thus introduce a novel way of reading the contemporary ‘story’ of displaced Ukrainians. Through deploying this unique analysis, we show how displaced Ukrainians, like fictional film protagonist Mary Poppins, have typically been deemed ‘practically perfect in every way’, and thus constituting uniquely deserving, ideal refugees. By scrutinising the storying of an unexpected guest and the guest’s impacts in the host’s world through the Mary Poppins lens, we aim to interrogate how the political and social context and public discourses collide to produce novel ways of seeing actual and idealised migrants in the contemporary German context.

Given that the plight of displaced Ukrainians inspired unprecedented, temporary changes to existing asylum procedures in Germany and the EU, which eased their entry, Ukrainians’ stories, like Mary Poppins, feature a sudden, yet welcome arrival and challenging of the status quo. These swift, significant policy changes may provoke an opportunity for generative reflections and learning for EU host countries. Overall, we argue that interrogating these constructions of displaced Ukrainians in this way poses productive paradoxes that help us engage with opportunities for denaturalising entrenched social norms and expectations, especially those that potentially limit safety and security for refugees more broadly. Engaging in these reflections may help us better understand how some problems vexing displaced people – problems that previously seemed unsolvable – were suddenly, in this unique instance, addressed with alacrity. By identifying, problematising, and working critically, yet productively with the notions of the ‘practically perfect’ refugee that emerged, we postulate that we can contribute to denaturalising ‘common knowledge’ about displaced people often taken for granted in public discourse and public policy.

To that end, the remainder of this article is structured as follows: First, we provide background information to contextualise the study, including engaging with existing research. Next, we explain our methods of data collection and analysis. From there, we present our findings, then subject them to analysis, including reading them through the Mary Poppins lens. In particular, we identify and explore five key characteristics of the Mary Poppins story that appear in the storying of displaced Ukrainians: (1) the guest(s) arrives smoothly, is welcome, and is relatedly seen as familiar and non-threatening; (2) the host perceives the guest as educated, resourceful, and hard-working; (3) the guest demonstrates being willing and able to assist with maintaining the host’s’ ideals and values; (4) the host benefits from the guest’s stay; and, (5) the host presumes that the stay of the guest(s) is inevitably temporary. Finally, we conclude by summarising our argument, theorising wider implications for scholarship and policy, and identifying directions for future related research.

Background

On 7 March 2022, shortly after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the German Federal Ministry of the Interior adopted the so-called Ukrainian Residence Transitional Regulation (UkraineAufenthÜV), which aims to provide displaced Ukrainians with an expedited protection pathway. Rather than undergoing time-consuming, bureaucratic asylum application processes, under this legal ordinance, valid until 4 March 2024 Ukrainians arriving in Germany are exempt from the requirement of holding a residence title for a period of 90 days upon first entering the country. The intention is to afford Ukrainians the time necessary to apply for a residency title without risking negative repercussions. While displaced Ukrainians could apply for asylum, they rarely do so and are indeed advised against it by German authorities.

Instead, most Ukrainians arriving in Germany have applied for temporary protection under Section 24 of the Residence Act (§24 AufenthG), which is much faster and grants them a legal status significantly different from that of asylum seekers. Under Section 24, upon registering with German authorities, Ukrainians can obtain a residence permit (Aufenthaltsgenehmigung) or a corresponding ‘provisional residence document’ (Fiktionsbescheinigung) from the foreigners’ authority (Ausländerbehörde). Moreover, Section 24 applicants are granted immediate employment rights and social benefits, including medical care, without having to wait for an asylum application to be approved (Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) 2023). Ukrainians are allowed to rent private accommodation and the majority have done so (Pro Asyl 2022). Moreover, under Section 24, Ukrainians are permitted to travel back and forth to their country of origin without losing their entitlements. Ukrainians are also legally permitted to move to another EU country after having already received temporary protection, without the threat of being forced to return to the first country of asylum under Dublin II (Council of the European Union 2022).

Against this policy backdrop, around 1.1 million Ukrainians arrived in Germany in 2022, with around 2/3 of those arriving within the first few months of the Russian invasion (Federal Statistical Office of Germany 2023). Amongst Ukrainian arrivals to Germany, females⁵ have significantly outnumbered males, with adult females making up the largest group (Federal Statistical Office of Germany 2023). A December 2022 survey found that adult Ukrainian refugees tend to be more highly educated than the Ukrainian average, with more than 72% holding a university degree (Institute for Employment Research (IAB) 2023). Of the 17% employed at the time of the survey, 71% held a job that requires a university or vocational degree (IAB 2023). Finally, in terms of attitudes and experiences, most Ukrainians feel welcome in Germany (ibid).

These attributes just described, or more particularly, the ways in which they are deployed and politicised to construct ideas about Ukrainians in public discourse, can have significant implications for public sentiment, political action, and experiences of displaced people. Likewise, examining how displaced Ukrainians are ‘storied’ may contribute to broader understandings of the politics of displacement, and how understandings and experiences of displaced people may rely on or challenge assumptions about differing groups or characteristics.

To be clear, our aim here is to examine the unique case of Ukrainians, not to provide a comparison with previous migration periods or other cohorts. However, we do note that, given the proximity, relative ease of movement, and knowledge and support available from a pre-existing diaspora, the journeys and arrivals of Ukrainians fleeing to Europe in 2022–23 represent stark differences with 2015–16 refugee cohorts who came to Europe – often via boat and/or long-distance walking, and at times facing different obstacles, such as minefields or walls. Additionally, the policy accommodations especially for Ukrainians meant that their journeys to EU countries are unquestionably legal, whereas many other asylum seekers have faced significant suspicions and obstacles at border controls and beyond.⁶ Moreover, as noted above, given their unique protected status under Section 24, displaced Ukrainians can exercise several rights not afforded to asylum seekers awaiting determination on their applications, including being able to: travel back and forth to their country of origin without losing their entitlements, exercise some choice around where they wish to live in Germany, and access higher welfare payments and entitlements (Federal Government 2023).

Demographic differences are also salient. While many presume Ukrainians to be White, fellow Europeans, who are predominantly Christian, 2015–16 arrivals to the EU mostly came from countries outside Europe, populated predominantly by people of non-European ethnicities, and often with predominantly Muslim populations, such as Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq. Moreover, gender differences between the periods of 2015–16 and 2022–23 are notable, with sex ratios differing significantly between the two migration periods: Around 80% Ukrainians who have arrived are female (IAB et al. 2023), whereas in 2015 around three-quarters of asylum applicants in the EU, and two thirds in Germany, were male.

Noting these differences alongside policy responses to the 2022–23 Ukrainian arrivals, some scholars (e.g. Bejan and Bogovic 2022) have suggested a stark contrast with EU countries’ treatment of other refugee groups, including in 2015–16, when around 1 million Syrians and other Middle Eastern and North African people arrived in Germany. Indeed, research has found that, compared to Afghan refugees, for example, displaced Ukrainians have been treated overwhelmingly positively in Europe and the US (De Coninck 2023). Zawadzka-Paluektau (2023) likewise suggests the centrality of racism in the differential treatment of Ukrainians compared to previous people movements, whereas Gallant (2022, 1) suggests ‘racist and sexist prejudices’ are key factors in different treatment of Ukrainians compared to earlier arrivals in Germany.

Other scholars note differential treatment, yet also call for examining a wider range of factors contributing to differing responses. For example, Abdelaaty (2022) suggests that ‘Europeans see Ukrainians as White and Christian, similar to the way that many in European countries see themselves’, noting that ‘shared racial, linguistic and religious ties increase the acceptance rate of asylum applications and result in more generous refugee policies worldwide’ (see also: Su 1964). Researchers have also pointed out additional factors shaping the empathic response to the displaced Ukrainians. For example, De Coninck (2023) argues that despite similarities, certain differences – particularly in relation to: notions of symbolic threat, familiarity derived from taking part in global events, and Russia as perceived threat – have likely influenced this dissimilar treatment. Düvell and Lapshyna (2022) also highlight the salience of fears of a Russian invasion resulting from the Cold War, alongside other aspects of European history, such as: regional politics, pre-existing migration arrangements, and the perceptions, sentiments, and obligations these entail.

German research analysing the 2015–16 period also considers emergent forms of hospitality (Willkommenskultur) and the initially positive public sentiments regarding the arrivals (Vollmer and Karakayali 2017; Köttig and Sigl 2020; Laubenthal 2019; Etzel 2022). Research considering migration in 2015–16 also demonstrates that differences in gender and intersecting factors have politically significant implications for the ways people on the move are represented and understood, and that these representations and related understandings significantly link with policy outcomes affecting displaced people. For example, researchers highlighted how young men on the move in 2015–16 were framed as a risk to host countries, based on factors such as gender, race, ethnicity, and/or nationality (Pruitt, Berents, and Munro 2018; Gray and Franck 2019; Turner 2019; Pruitt 2020). Moreover, research has demonstrated how discourse around migration policy in Germany shifted over the course of decades, while also noting in the recent 2015 period ‘women and children’ were deemed the ‘more deserving migrants’ (Vollmer and Karakayali 2017, 16).

Yet, to date, gender and intersecting factors are relatively underexplored in research considering responses to displaced Ukrainians. Likewise, the 2022–23 arrival of Ukrainian women displaced by conflict incites scholarly curiosity as a significant moment for studying the politics of difference. In particular, we are interested in whether and how Ukrainian women are welcomed with positive regards, and how gender and other intersecting factors may play into this welcome.

To that end, we examine research considering how migration has been portrayed over time. In considering migration metaphors over a 200 + year time frame, Taylor (2021, 465) noted that most tended to frame migrants in a negative light, ‘leaving just guest as potentially ambiguous’. Likewise, compared to other more common metaphors of migration, the guest metaphor has been ‘seen as less problematic’ and perhaps due to this has not been considered much in research (Taylor 2021, 474). More broadly, Taylor reports that ‘the analysis of past discourses has not offered any conventionalised positive alternative metaphors outside the economic frame’ (2021, 477). However, recent research on Polish news has found ‘representations of Ukrainian refugees’ to be an exception, as media coverage in this case showed potential for a positive framing of refugees (Zawadzka-Paluektau 2023, 96).

While we knew that displaced Ukrainians were predominantly female and our anecdotal observations suggested that they were frequently depicted positively and commonly as guests in reporting, we were curious to interrogate whether this was the case in Germany and, if so, how this guest framing might be deployed and what its consequences – positive or otherwise – might be. In doing so, we have sought to remain mindful of the crucial existing body of work engaging with questions of ‘deservingness.’ In particular, as De Coninck (2023, 581) proposes, we agree that,

it remains important to be aware of the manner in which the … public perceives different ‘types’ of migrants in different ways. Most importantly, we need to avoid falling into the trap to suggest that someone who belongs in one category or the other is somehow more ‘deserving’ than another.

Steering clear of such ‘traps’ thus requires uncovering how such categories of refugees and migrants are constructed (Crawley and Skleparis 2018; Goodman and Speer 2007; Goodman, Sirriyeh, and McMahon 2017), as we seek to do in this study.

Data collection & analysis: the making of ‘Mary Poppins’ migrants?

As part our broader research, we harvested and analysed publicly available news reporting in Der Spiegel and Die Zeit during the first year of the Ukraine invasion. Following these parameters, we searched the NexisUni database for terms expected to capture articles dealing with conflict-induced displacement from Ukraine. In the period (24 February 2022–24 February 2023), Der Spiegel ran 190 articles and reports with the words ‘Ukraine’ or ‘Ukraine war’ in the title, subtitle or lead. Die Zeit, including the Swiss version had 256.

Given that most Ukrainians arriving in Germany were women, and noting the limited attention to gender in related analysis, we then re-ran the search to harvest articles particularly pertaining to women and girls (Frauen oder Mädchen und Ukraine und Flucht oder Flüchtling oder Vertreibung/ Women or girls and Ukraine and flight/escape or refugee or displacement). This full text search uncovered 73 articles for der Spiegel and 107 for die Zeit (180 in total). We then reviewed each of these articles for relevance, thus narrowing down to 79 results (46 from die Zeit and 33 from der Spiegel).⁷ While we aim to report detailed findings from that analysis elsewhere, here we briefly summarise key points. We draw on these, and use selected quotes from that analysis, to illustrate our case for reading this discourse alongside Mary Poppins.

Upon examination, we found the data featured a diversity of experiences. For example, stories included Ukrainian women from varied ages, family statuses, education levels, and work experience. This diversity was often demonstrated through Ukrainian women’s own words quoted from direct interviews. Rather than relying on collective, generalised depictions of Ukrainians, both outlets frequently published short profiles and briefs, typically based on 5–7 individual biographical narratives. The stories featured within these collections frequently highlighted contrasts between individuals. Notably, this diverse representation, and the chance for Ukrainian women to contribute to representing themselves, constructing their own narratives in the media, in and of itself appears politically significant when it comes to media representations of people experiencing conflict-induced displacement.

Our analysis further suggests that constructions of displaced Ukrainians draw on ideas about gender and intersecting factors, and that these factors can and do (re)shape how host societies perceive Ukrainians and how their deservingness of support is established and weighed up against others. Moreover, we suggest that the idealised framing of Ukrainian refugees is based, not only on their being seen to be mostly women, but as European women, who are understood as being willing and able to work during their stay in Germany, while still adhering to gendered expectations of idealised womanhood, in which they are simultaneously deemed primarily responsible for caring for children and keeping them safe.

Overall, we found that the dominant discourse constructs Ukrainian women in Germany as welcome guests, who are grateful, keep children safe, and are willing, able workers. The reporting also pays significant attention to Ukrainian women’s aspirations, future plans, and dreams, and the practical compromises they make in pursuing them. In this way, Ukrainian women are constructed as positive, confident, ambitious agents with a strong belief in the power of education and training for themselves and, where relevant, their children. Moreover, Ukrainians’ relationship to the German host society is primarily depicted in terms of cultural familiarity. As such, displaced Ukrainians are constructed as uniquely deserving, ideal refugees, or, as we suggest here, as ‘Mary Poppins’ migrants. For the avoidance of doubt, our aim is not to argue for Ukrainian women being some ‘ideal,’ but rather to consider how this ideal is constructed and politically deployed in the context under consideration.

To better articulate the relevance of the Mary Poppins story, here we (re)introduce its key points: Set in London in 1910, the film focuses on Mary Poppins, the new live-in nanny for an upper-class English family. She arrives magically and suddenly, yet is invited into the home as a welcome guest, since the family is in dire need of a helping hand. While accomplishing her daily tasks in the family household, she demonstrates she is ‘practically perfect in every way,’ as through her cleverness and resourcefulness, she works hard to be ‘kind but very firm.’ Through her unconventional antics, she challenges unnecessary rules and social norms, sometimes causing consternation from the father. Yet in the end, she departs, leaving them happier and financially better off, while she disappears back off into the sky.

We now reflect on the data by considering how the storying of Ukrainian women follows similar thematic patterns to those of Mary Poppins. In doing so, we articulate how we see displaced Ukrainians being constructed as, like Mary Poppins, ‘practically perfect in every way.’ To explore how this occurs, we consider five key elements: (1) the protagonist is a welcome guest who arrives in a relatively smooth fashion, relatedly appearing familiar and non-threatening; (2) the host presumes the guest to be a well-educated, capable hard-worker; (3) the guest helps maintain the host’s values; (4) the host benefits from the guest’s stay; and, (5) the host presumes the story will conclude with the guest departing after a temporary stay. While separating the five thematic elements to facilitate analytical flow, we note they are not mutually exclusive and can certainly overlap. In particular, the presumption of being hard-working permeates several other components, as it may at least partially account for the perception of shared ideals and the host benefitting from the guest’s stay. At the same time, we also suggest that, like Mary Poppins, displaced Ukrainian women contribute to understanding of their story and can also challenge the status quo in ways that may offer lessons and benefits for the hosts and perhaps even wider society.

The story begins with a welcome guest

Firstly, given the tendency of reporting to draw on Ukrainian women’s own words in these constructions, we suggest that they are, like Mary Poppins, centred as protagonists (a main, leading, or central character) of the stories. Likewise, we suggest both the stories of Mary Poppins and of Ukrainian women feature a protagonist who appears as a welcome guest.

In the film, Mary Poppins flew in on the wind using her magical umbrella and arrived looking calm, collected, and well organised. As the wind blew away the other applicants for the nanny job, Mary Poppins was the lone guest invited into the family home to be interviewed.

While having encountered many serious real-world challenges due to a brutal ongoing war, Ukrainian women have nevertheless been predominantly storied in a similar fashion, with reports suggesting many required little to no assistance to arrive to meet the host, and encountered few, if any, barriers to entry. Reports also suggest that they have received a uniquely warm welcome compared to others seeking the same ‘role’ (protection in a host country). As one story quoting an interview with a Ukrainian woman reported:

From the train I saw many Ukrainian flags on the German houses. That really touched me. And then there were all these helpers at the train station in Berlin, with clothes, food and everything … [M]y friend … had already found a German host family for us … I had not believed her and thought that maybe we would initially live in refugee camps or tents. But it is true. Everyone is so helpful and friendly. (Eberle 2022)

Another Ukrainian woman reported a similarly smooth arrival and welcome reception: ‘We travelled to Germany via Romania … we have experienced a great willingness to help … We are grateful, it’s nice here’ (Eberle 2022). An article featuring another Ukrainian woman noted she saw Germany as ‘the country of her dreams’ for having ‘good health insurance, beautiful cities, no air raids,’ and that she showed reporters a video of ‘them with the host family in the garden, all happy faces … ’ (Keck 2022).

Having noted that Ukrainian women have been storied as welcome guests, we suggest that, notably, part of what makes displaced Ukrainian women welcome is that – like Mary Poppins – they appear familiar to the host, and thus easy to accept into the host’s world. In the case of Mary Poppins, her dress, appearance, diction, and mannerisms mirror those of the host family and their social milieu, and she further demonstrates her familiarity to them as she regularly seeks to soothe the father’s concerns by assuring him that she shares his values.

In the case of Ukrainian women, we especially note the ways the constructions of Ukrainians draw on their being European. This emphasis contributes to constructing idealised notions of refugeehood as including familiarity or similarity with the hosts and thus requiring few resources. For example, one article reported that:

‘After 2015, I was never optimistic that the situation would remain so relatively relaxed … ’ says … the representative of the State Office for Refugee Affairs … But there are many things that make the situation easier than it was in 2015, despite the very high numbers: ‘It starts with the fact that no security check is necessary … We have a completely different group, mostly families. women with children. Everyone is friendly, there are hardly any conflicts, no exaggerated testosterone behaviour … ’ (Dettmer 2022)

In this way, reporting directly contrasts Ukrainian women with previous arrivals, who were predominantly male and non-European, to suggest this (stereotypical) gendered distinction and perceived cultural familiarity makes Ukrainians easier and safer guests to host. In short, we suggest that, like Mary Poppins, the dominant storying of displaced Ukrainians features a protagonist who arrives in a relatively smooth fashion as a welcome guest, who relatedly appears familiar and non-threatening.

The guest gets to work

Secondly, we consider how constructions of the ‘story’ of Ukrainians, like Mary Poppins, features a host who presumes the guest is a well-educated, capable hard-worker. Mary Poppins is portrayed as an articulate in-home educator, who uses her intelligence and organisational skills to anticipate the hosts’ needs, make their lives easier, and contribute to the household’s functioning. In short, Mary Poppins appears as a no-nonsense nurturer who is well spoken and highly capable of getting jobs done. For example, while insisting the children must clean up their room, she sings to them that ‘In every job that must be done, there is an element of fun. You find the fun and snap, the job’s a game.’ In doing so, she shows them how to snap their items magically back into place quickly and easily.

Relatedly, while Ukraine is amongst the poorest countries in Europe, having suffered from the post-1991 transformation and the Russian aggression of 2014, its population is seen as relatively young and well educated, making them highly attractive in the race for global talent (Weigle and Zuenkler 2023; Turny et al. 2019). We note that this context is leveraged politically in the discourse analysed to construct Ukrainian arrivals as ideal refugees in contrast to others. For example, one article stated:

If the refugee movement in 2015 and 2016 was male, it is now female, because men between the ages of 18 and 60 are not allowed to leave Ukraine. ‘The refugees who are already here and those who are still to come will be qualified above average,’ says Herbert Brücker from the Institute for Employment Research (IAB). The level of education is high compared to other countries of origin. (Dettmer 2022)

Moreover, the aforementioned quick access to work rights may enable some Ukrainians to maintain or advance their careers, and connections in the workplace, as well as potentially fostering valuable social connections with German locals.

Like Mary Poppins, Ukrainian women are regularly constructed as willing, hard workers, who want to bring the host benefits. For example, one article reported on a Ukrainian saying ‘‘Here in Brandenburg I have three jobs: I look after Ukrainian children in a play group for an initiative in Neuruppin, I translate for the German Red Cross and in clinics’’ (Eberle 2022). Another article describes a 27-year-old Ukrainian woman as ‘open-hearted, a bundle of energy,’ saying: 'That helps her in her job’ as ‘part of the team of a Ukrainian psychologist who is in demand as an advisor with his reality television shows … ’ (Keck 2022). Similarly, die ZEIT reports on a Ukrainian woman saying,

‘ … In October I’m going to a congress in Vienna and to Korea in 2024. I can’t believe it. There are very nice women in my team, they support me and help me’ […] She has found a job as senior project manager at an international NGO in Munich … ‘It’s great to be able to work again, to have a life away from the household and to earn money’, she says … (Karsten 2022)

In short, reports commonly construct displaced Ukrainian women, like Mary Poppins, as protagonists who work (or at least intend to work) to ‘earn their keep’ with the host alongside their pay. While there have been accounts of Ukrainian women being exploited by their hosts and the risks of trafficking (Cincurova and Lüdke 2022), the dominant discourse focuses on vacancies in the German labour market that need to be filled urgently, including through skilled labour.

The guest helps maintain the host’s ideals

Next, we consider how the ‘storying’ of displaced Ukrainian women, like Mary Poppins, features a guest who contributes to maintaining the host’s ideals. In the film, Mr. Banks, the father of the family for whom Mary Poppins nannies, proclaims himself ‘the lord of my castle,’ referring to the family home. Likewise, in declaring his values, he sings that ‘Tradition, discipline, and rules must be the tools, Without them: disorder, chaos, moral disintegration! In short, you have a ghastly mess!’ to which Mary Poppins replies, ‘I quite agree!’

Ukrainian women are likewise constructed as maintaining the host’s ideals or values. As noted earlier, since laws were changed specifically to make Ukrainian arrivals inherently legal, they can appear to uphold ideals of order and discipline, leaving no questioning of legality refugees often face in other instances. For example, an article citing comparisons with 2015, notes that inspecting the situation with Ukrainians in 2022 is easier, because of perceived shared ideals and values, saying ‘the entire transcultural communication of ideas and values is no longer necessary’ and highlighting a relatively greater perceived sense of order, noting ‘There are also no problems with missing passports – everyone here has a passport’ (Dettmer 2022).

Ukrainians are furthermore constructed as upholding German ideals of European cooperation, diplomacy, and education. One article, for example, reports on a Ukrainian woman discussing her plans for studying at a range of European universities, saying ‘It’s as if the 22-year-old wanted to give a personal response to the violence unleashed by Russia in her homeland: more education, more international understanding, more Europe’ (Mingels 2023). Likewise, the article reports a Ukrainian mother explaining how working in Germany also helps her home country, and how she and her family value education, saying:

Our future will be in Germany. My son can later do more for his country if he gets a good education here than if he goes to the front now. Also, I myself am more useful to Ukraine when I'm here. I earn money with my work and send some of it home, including donations to the Ukrainian army. (Mingels 2023)

Similarly, in reporting on another Ukrainian woman, the article paints her as wanting to contribute to maintaining the host’s ideals, saying:

 … what if the war continues the winter after next, after her studies? ‘I hope that Ukraine and Europe will move much closer together’, says Dusha. ‘Personally, I'm thinking primarily of Germany.’ Maybe then she'll work in the Federal Republic. She often thinks of Leipzig, for example when waiting at a bus stop: ‘Sometimes I get annoyed that the bus is a few minutes late,’ she says, ‘and then I laugh about how German I've become.’ Dina Dusha is convinced that Ukraine will need young people like her. And then she wants to follow the call of her home country. (Mingels 2023)

In this way, Ukrainian women are constructed as sharing the host’s values, such as hard work, education, and support for the ideals of democracy and freedom, including through supporting those defending Ukraine.

The host benefits from the guest’s stay

Fourthly, the storying of Ukrainians and of Mary Poppins both feature the host benefiting from the guest(s). In Mary Poppins, when the father, Mr. Banks, is humiliated and fired from the bank where he works, he searches for a response, then blurts out a nonsense word he heard from Mary Poppins and tells a silly joke the children had shared from an outing with her. He then departs smiling and laughing. The head of the bank muses on the joke, finally gets it, and then laughs so hard he floats into the air. The following day, Mr. Banks is at home, looking happier than ever, and invites the family to join him to go fly a kite in the park. There, they run into the head of the bank’s son, who tells them that his father died laughing at Mr. Banks’ joke. Saying it was the happiest his father had ever been in his life, he then offers Mr. Banks a job back at the bank with a promotion. In short, due to drawing on Mary Poppins’ wisdom and wit, the father of the host family ends up becoming a partner in bank he had been fired from, and as such, the family ends up both financially better off and having learned important lessons.

Likewise, the discourse around Ukrainians highlights their perceived strong worth ethic and ties this in with financial benefits to Germany, the host country. For example, the discourse constructs Ukrainian women as grateful guests, who want to help their hosts through hard work. This occurs through interviews with Ukrainians such as Lena, who is quoted as saying ‘“We want to be useful for Germany and for ourselves”. She wants to learn the language, earn money and pay taxes. She wants to be a part of this society and give something back as soon as she can’ (Mingels 2023). Meanwhile, the article reports:

The economist Marcel Fratzscher recently described the integration of Ukrainian refugees in Germany as an ‘unusual and impressive success story’. According to Fratzscher, Germany has learned from past mistakes and, unlike in 2015 and 2016, is giving the refugees a real chance to integrate. As great as the loss of these people is for Ukraine, he says, ‘the luck of this immigration wave is just as great for Germany, also economically’. (Mingels 2023)

Similarly, another article asks, ‘Is the labour market miracle coming now?,’ noting that, ‘Women in particular are fleeing Ukraine, many of whom are well qualified,’ adding that ‘in view of demographic change, Germany is dependent on a growing number of foreign skilled workers’ (Dettmer 2022). In this way, like Mary Poppins, the guests (Ukrainian women) are storied as bringing benefits to the host (Germany).

How the story (presumably) ends

Finally, like Mary Poppins, the storying of Ukrainians in Germany features the host’s presumptions that the story will conclude with the guest departing after a temporary stay. Indeed, the movie ends with Mary Poppins flying back into the clouds, upholding her earlier promise that she would ‘only stay until the wind changes.’

As with Mary Poppins, the general presumption is that Ukrainians do not/will not need to be told to leave, as they would not overstay the welcome or hospitality. This presumption is likely made about their exit, given they are constructed as having only arrived due to circumstances beyond their control forcing them to seek safety in the host country. In this way, constructions of displaced Ukrainians follow the familiar story arc with the (presumed) conclusion demonstrating the guest meets expectations that they only ever stay temporarily. Notably, this aspect of the discourse most commonly referred to women reluctantly forced to leave Ukraine in order to uphold gendered care responsibilities, including the role of women as mothers expected to care for and protect their children. For example, some articles reported:

I didn’t want to leave my husband, my parents, my homeland. It was February 24th, the beginning of the war. But I did it because of my five-year-old daughter. We were no longer safe there. (Elger 2022)

 … If it weren’t for the children, I wouldn’t have left. I volunteered in Ukraine, I distributed medicine to soldiers. I would have been fine on my own. But the three boys, they can’t grow up in war. (Kapitelman 2022)

That said, while several media reports stressed the temporariness of the Ukrainian presence in Germany by foregrounding post-war plans, other media reports also discussed the possibility and thus the required necessities (e.g. integration) for longer lasting stays. For example, one article quoted a Ukrainian saying:

‘When we left in March, I said to my husband that we would see each other again by May 1st at the latest,’ … It was supposed to be a temporary escape, a temporary solution to keep the children safe. Now she thinks she will probably stay. She considers a return ‘unrealistic even in the long term’. (Mingels 2023)

Available data suggests that Ukrainians’ return intentions are mixed and fluctuating, depending on the state of the ongoing conflict and other factors: While a sizeable minority (37%) reported they ‘would like to settle permanently or for several years,’ 34% reportedly intend to stay until the war’s end, with 27% undecided and only 2% planning to depart within a year (IAB et al. 2023). Indeed, it remains too early to make presumptions about how the story will conclude.

While the ‘story’ created through the discourse analysed does not yet have an obvious real-world conclusion, we suggest that, reading the ‘story’ of displaced Ukrainians alongside Mary Poppins can encourage us to productively challenge and reject existing rules or norms that may create barriers to desired political goals (e.g. like the German innovation in reducing bureaucracy in response to Ukrainian needs). In this way, engaging with the guest as protagonist may have an educating effect and one with potential benefits beyond the guest’s stay. Hence, we suggest continually asking: What might Germany, the EU, and the global community learn from this story, and how might these lessons be applied in the future?

Conclusion

Reflecting on these German constructions of displaced Ukrainian women, and analysing this discourse with the help of the Mary Poppins story offers new prospects. Undertaking this analysis has helped us better understand how the host imagines refugees, in this case Ukrainian women. Moreover, this understanding points to a need for deeply considering how Ukrainians may be affected by these constructions and the expectations they imply going forward. As such, while we acknowledge this Mary Poppins lens is a provocative framing, we suggest that in enabling us to engage in productive tensions, we can deploy it to better see, engage with, and critique naturalised tropes of idealised refugees and associated ideas of deservingness. Specifically, we suggest that, like the character Mary Poppins, interrogating the appearance and constructions of Ukrainian women in this context may productively challenge established ideas and ways of living with difference. Moreover, these learning opportunities and challenges to established ideas can leave the host (country in this case) better educated and living better.

Notably, such idealised depictions may benefit Ukrainians by affording them an overall better treatment and perception compared to other groups seeking asylum (Fiddian-Qasmiyeh 2014). However, in reading these findings in light of existing research, we acknowledge that such ostensibly ‘positive’ representations of people displaced by conflict can nevertheless have intended or unintended negative consequences. For example, in being idealised, displaced Ukrainians may face challenges that go hand in hand with some of the unrealistic expectations that come along with this framing. Meanwhile, idealised constructions may be deployed in excluding others who are unable to fit into this ‘practically perfect’ category for a variety of reasons. After all, previous research suggests that a focus on ‘ideal refugees’ can be deployed to exclusionary ends, and that such framings can also place unrealistic expectations on those seeking refuge (Clark, Haw, and Mackenzie 2023).

Likewise, idealised constructions of Ukrainian women displaced by conflict may also unintentionally obscure important challenges they face and hence limit or preclude options for addressing them adequately, if at all. In such instances, crucial needs could go unmet. Indeed, the current European legal framework is a patchwork of asylum, subsidiary protection, temporary protection and toleration, and recent changes available only to Ukrainians have raised some serious concerns, including over potential racial bias leading to a two-tier regime of refugee protection. Yet, while the temporary protection provided to Ukrainians appears to be preferential treatment to many, it nevertheless only offers short-term protection and thus potentially a more precarious outlook than the status refugees from other countries can access.

Hence, we advocate ongoing critical reflections on these issues, including through further research to interrogate such prospects and connect this research with Ukrainian women’s lived experiences. Several potential questions merit consideration. For example, given that the reporting rarely referred to women without children, how might this connect with previous research on the discursive conflation of women and children and its political implications? Moreover, how do these notions of idealised refugees draw on and reinforce notions of idealised womanhood? More broadly, how might further research offer insights about migration politics in Germany, Europe, and indeed globally, including in relation to how positive framings of those granted protection may also advance positive self-positionings of the (German) host society (Fiddian-Qasmiyeh 2014)? Can or should we understand the policy changes for Ukrainians only as ‘temporary special measures’, and if so, might this be merely a way to depoliticise some things by deeming them temporary? Alternatively, (how) can the new categories and processes, created quickly and specifically for Ukrainians, inform our understandings of wider refugee dynamics in settings of conflict induced displacement? And, crucially, how might Ukrainian women’s own knowledge and experiences of displacement be constructively engaged in interrogating such questions?

For now, we have proposed that using the fictional film Mary Poppins helps us better understand German discourse around displaced Ukrainians and its implications. In doing so, we have provided a unique reading of idealised refugeehood and deservingness, while demonstrating how familiar stories can be deployed to critically interrogate and better understand extraordinary political responses towards refugees. Overall, we suggest that by analysing representations of Ukrainians through this fictional lens, we contribute to denaturalising ‘common knowledge’ about displaced people often taken for granted in public discourse and public policy. Ultimately, reading the storying of displaced Ukrainians alongside Mary Poppins offers a (de)constructive approach that helps us think about dismissing or replacing unnecessary norms or rules in ways that may have previously been unimaginable; as such, it challenges us to continue to imagine new, creative ways of responding to migrants and their needs.

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to Annika Püfke for providing research assistance and to Klaus Neumann for reading earlier working drafts and providing helpful feedback.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 NB: ‘men’ here refers to all people whose national identification documents class them as men, rather than only those who self-identify as men.

2 Including, but not limited to, factors such as race, ethnicity, ability, age, and socioeconomic status.

3 Der Spiegel and Die Zeit reach an estimated 4.17-5.01 million readers and 1.63-2.14 million readers respectively. See: https://media.zeit.de/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/2023_DIE-ZEIT_Markensteckbrief.pdf and https://gruppe.spiegel.de/spiegel-media/portfolio-national-international/der-spiegel-print

4 The film was based on the book: Travers, P.L. 1943. Mary Poppins, London: Harper Collins. However, the film and book significantly differ. Indeed, the book’s author was reportedly very unhappy with the Disney film adaption. Noting this, we focus exclusively on the film, which is the better-known cultural reference, having wide reaching popularity beyond the English-speaking world.

5 NB: ‘females’ here refers to all people whose national identification documents class them as such, rather than only those who self-identify as women.

6 Notably, people from minority backgrounds (regarding skin colour, ethnic origin, and/or religion) faced substantial difficulties at the borders when fleeing from Ukraine (European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights 2023).

7 While appreciating that further quantifying analysis may interest some readers, we note that our research here is qualitative. As such, in this instance, we are primarily interested in offering more in-depth understanding into an issue (conflict-induced displacement) and generating new ideas for research. Likewise, we do not intend here to make any claims of representativeness.