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

本提案旨在扩展我关于摩尔多瓦跨国家庭在摩尔多瓦和英国之间发送包裹作为跨境联系的体现的论文，以探索由Covid-19大流行和乌克兰难民危机引起的导航不确定性的策略。拟议研究的重点是双重的：私人包裹货车公司作为移民基础设施代理人的适应性（Xiang and Lindquist 2014），以及作为社会汇款形式的包裹寄送所体现的跨国实践的连续性（Levitt 1998, Levitt and Lamba-Nieves 2013）与危机时期被视为大家庭的乌克兰难民共享。正如我的论文所显示的那样，私人包裹车公司在摩尔多瓦跨国生活中扮演了30年的关键角色，尽管他们的家族史发生了变化，但移民们一直在使用包裹寄送来保持联系。他们的迁移实践还采用了时间映射（Gell 1992），将主要生活事件作为时间参考（Munn 1992），帮助跨国家庭理解迁移经历，引发对破坏性事件的反应，并重新调整家庭策略。最近的新闻报道表明，在大流行和封锁期间，包裹寄送一直在稳步增加，这表明跨境家庭习俗的连续性。此外，为了应对乌克兰危机，摩尔多瓦移民网络已动员起来，通过重新分配资源提供支持，利用包裹货车公司提供的免费运送难民紧急援助。这些情况提供了一个重要的机会来研究材料连接的作用，这些连接代表了“可变循环”（Khrenova和Burrell 2021），当家访中断时，这种亲密关系和迁移叙事的延续。在过去两年中，跨国家庭已经将英国脱欧和大流行作为其移民史上的主要时间参考。英国脱欧后，移民重新定义了他们应对变化的社会策略（Morad， Della Puppa和Sacchetto， 2020），并制定了新的策略来应对敌对环境（Gawlewicz和Sotkasiira， 2020），更多的移民更好地应对风险（Trabka和Pustulka， 2020）。此外，2019冠状病毒病挑战了移民的归属感和安全感，这在一定程度上源于对移民网络的依赖（Gurung， amburgy和Craig， 2021），并表明流动性本身可能已成为不确定性的来源（Turaeva和Urinboyev， 2021）。尽管如此，快递车公司继续利用移民网络，提供非正式交流的流动，作为一种可变的、流动的实践，暗示着“真实的存在”（Khrenova和Burrell 2021:261）。此外，有证据表明出现了“大流行病跨国主义” （Galstyan和Galstyan 2021），这是一类社会汇款，旨在应对大流行病的社会经济影响，并将其转化为摩尔多瓦的难民危机应对措施。疫情的全面影响和乌克兰冲突对跨国做法的影响还有待了解，特别是关于材料交换的叙述揭示了个人历史层面和更广泛的社会背景下“不同时间的重要性”（Khrenova和Burrell 2021:261）。我的论文指出，在快递公司的调解下，包裹寄送行为的持续存在表明，尽管发生了破坏性事件，移民仍在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、大流行期间跨国主义谈判以及乌克兰难民危机为调查跨境保持联系的社会实践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.