Parcel-Sending as a Peri-Pandemic and Post-Crisis Strategy of Creating Mutable Connections in Moldovan Transnational Life, 2020–2023

This project builds previous research on parcel-sending via private van companies by Moldovan transnational families as an embodiment of connections across borders, an important practice that Moldovan migrants in most European countries engaged in for the past thirty years. When the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted international travel, many Moldovan migrants used parcel-sending as their main connection to home. Later, when Ukraine was invaded in 2022, Moldovans in the UK/EU/Switzerland used parcel van companies to send items to help an unprecedented number of Ukrainian refugees in Moldova. The main reason for conducting this study was to better understand the role of parcel-sending in the context of the uncertainty brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic and the Ukrainian refugee crisis in Moldova. The project aimed to address how Moldovan transnational families deal with uncertainty through adjusting their parcel-sending practices in response to crisis, and to uncover the role parcel-sending played in supporting Ukrainian refugees in Moldova by mediating the provision of aid. The main themes emerging from this research are the continuity and fluidity of transnational practices mediated by Moldovan parcel-van services despite major disruptions to transnational family life, and the central role of migrant networks in facilitating transnational responses to crises. Informants who sent parcels discussed their usual sending patterns and any changes to what, when, and why they sent over the past three years, including items sent in support of Ukrainian refugees and their use of migrant networks to collect and send aid. They also reflected on the absence of visits home during the Covid-19 pandemic, and other uncertainties affecting their sending practices. Informants who distributed aid sent via parcels to Ukrainian refugees discussed the timeliness of transnational responses, the range of sent items and the impact of this support on alleviating the refugee crisis in Moldova. The collection consists of anonymised interview transcripts for 12 informants interviewed for this project, in Moldova (in person), UK (in person and online), France, Italy, and Switzerland (online) in 2023.