Parcel-sending as a peri-pandemic and post-crisis strategy of creating mutable connections in Moldovan transnational life

这项提议旨在扩展我的论文，即摩尔多瓦跨国家庭在摩尔多瓦和英国之间寄送包裹，作为跨境联系的体现，以探索应对新冠肺炎疫情和乌克兰难民危机带来的不确定性的策略。拟议研究的重点有两个方面：私营包裹货车公司作为移徙基础设施代理人的适应性(向和林德奎斯特，2014年)和作为社会汇款形式的包裹寄送所体现的跨国做法的连续性(Levitt，Levitt和Lamba-Nieves，2013年)，乌克兰难民在危机时期被视为大家庭。正如我的论文所显示的那样，30年来，私人包裹货车公司一直是摩尔多瓦跨国生活的关键参与者，尽管他们的家族历史发生了变化，但移民们一直在使用包裹发送来保持联系。他们的寄送实践还使用了时间映射(Gell 1992)，将重大生活事件作为时间参照(Munn 1992)，帮助跨国家庭理解移民经历，引发对破坏性事件的反应，并重新调整家庭战略。最近的新闻报道表明，在疫情大流行和封锁期间，包裹寄送一直在稳步增加，这表明家庭做法在跨境延续。此外，为了应对乌克兰危机，摩尔多瓦移民网络已经动员起来，通过重新分配资源来提供支持，利用包裹面包车公司的提议免费运送难民紧急援助。这些情况为研究物质联系的作用提供了一个重要机会，这些物质联系代表着密切关系的“可变循环”(Khrenova和Burrell 2021)，以及当家访中断时移民叙述的延续。在过去的两年里，跨国家庭已经将英国退欧和疫情作为他们移民史上的主要时间参考。在英国退欧后的时期，移民重新定义了应对变化的社会战略(Morad、Della Puppa和Sacchetto 2020)，并制定了谈判敌对环境的新战略(Gawlewicz和Sotkasiira 2020)，更多的移民更好地驾驭风险(Trabka和Pustulka 2020)。此外，新冠肺炎挑战了移民的归属感和安全感，部分根源于对移民网络的依赖(古隆、安布吉和克雷格，2021年)，认为流动性本身可能已成为不确定性的来源(图拉耶娃和乌林博耶夫2021年)。尽管如此，包裹面包车公司仍在继续利用移民网络，将非正式交流作为一种可变的、不稳定的做法，暗示着“真实的存在”(Khrenova and Burrell 2021：261)。此外，有证据表明，出现了“大流行跨国家主义”(加尔斯坦和加尔斯坦2021)，这是一种旨在应对大流行病的社会经济影响并转化为摩尔多瓦难民危机应对措施的社会汇款类别。疫情的全面影响以及乌克兰冲突对跨国行为的影响尚不清楚，特别是在物质交换的叙述揭示了个人历史层面和更广泛的社会背景下不同时间性的重要性(Khrenova and Burrell 2021：261)。我的论文指出，由包裹货车公司调解的包裹递送做法持续存在，表明尽管发生了破坏性事件，移民仍继续利用非正式网络的相互信任。因此，拟议的研究建立在移民基础设施重要性的持续证据、跨民族主义大流行期间的谈判以及乌克兰难民危机为调查跨境保持联系的社会做法的作用提供了重要背景的最新迹象的基础上。

This proposal aims to expand my thesis on parcel-sending by Moldovan transnational families between Moldova and the UK as embodiment of connections across borders to explore the strategies of navigating uncertainty caused by the Covid-19 pandemic and the Ukrainian refugee crisis. The focus of the proposed research is twofold: the adaptability of private parcel van companies as agents of migrant infrastructure (Xiang and Lindquist 2014) and the continuity of transnational practices embodied in parcel-sending as a form of social remittances (Levitt 1998, Levitt and Lamba-Nieves 2013) shared with Ukrainian refugees who are seen as extended family in times of crisis. As my thesis showed, private parcel van companies have been key actors in Moldovan transnational life for thirty years and migrants have been using parcel-sending to keep in touch despite changes in their family histories. Their sending practices also employed time-mapping (Gell 1992) to incorporate major life events as temporal references (Munn 1992), helping transnational families make sense of the migration experience, elicit response to disruptive events, and readjust family strategies. Recent press reports suggest that parcel-sending has been steadily increasing throughout the pandemic and lockdowns, pointing to the continuity of family practices across borders. Moreover, in response to the Ukraine crisis, Moldovan migrant networks have mobilised to provide support by redistributing resources, using parcel van companies' offers to transport refugee emergency aid for free. These circumstances offer an important opportunity to investigate the role of material connections that represent 'mutable circulations' (Khrenova and Burrell 2021) of closeness and a continuation of migration narratives when home visits become disrupted. In the past two years, transnational families have already employed Brexit and the pandemic as major temporal references in their migration histories. The post-Brexit period has seen migrants redefine their social strategies of dealing with changes (Morad, Della Puppa and Sacchetto 2020) and develop new strategies to negotiate hostile environments (Gawlewicz and Sotkasiira 2020), with more embedded migrants navigating risks better (Trabka and Pustulka 2020). Furthermore, Covid-19 challenged migrants' sense of belonging and security, partially rooted in reliance on migrant networks (Gurung, Amburgey and Craig 2021), with suggestions that mobility itself may have become a source of uncertainty (Turaeva and Urinboyev 2021). Still, parcel van companies continue to harness migrant networks, providing the flow of informal exchanges as a mutable, fluid practice implying 'real presence' (Khrenova and Burrell 2021:261). Moreover, evidence points to the emergence of 'pandemic transnationalism' (Galstyan and Galstyan 2021), a category of social remittances aimed to cope with the socio-economic effects of the pandemic and translating into the refugee crisis response in Moldova. The full extent of the pandemic's impact and the implications of the Ukrainian conflict on transnational practices are yet to be understood, particularly as narratives of material exchanges uncover the 'importance of different temporalities' on personal history level and in wider societal contexts (Khrenova and Burrell 2021:261).My thesis pointed to the persistence of parcel-sending practices, mediated by parcel van companies showing that, despite disruptive events, migrants continue to harness the mutual trust of informal networks. Therefore, the proposed research builds on the continuing evidence of the significance of migrant infrastructure, peri-pandemic negotiation of transnationalism and the latest indication that the Ukrainian refugee crisis offers an important context for investigating the role of social practices of staying connected across borders.