Jennifer Long, Sofiia Budianska
Following Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Canada resettled nearly 300,000 Ukrainians under an unprecedented emergency visa program, yet its established settlement services struggled to respond at such a scale, leaving a gap that community members stepped in to fill. This paper asks how pre-existing community spaces can generate the relational conditions required for ethical, Knowledge-holder led research with newcomers and diaspora members, and how those conditions travel across research encounters. Situated within a larger community-engaged research project, this paper draws on participant observation, focus groups with Ukrainian-Edmontonian diaspora members, in-depth interviews with recent Ukrainian newcomers incorporating visual timelines, and a photovoice workshop. All data collection efforts occurred within and through an existing community “sanctuary” rather than manufacturing such conditions through research design. We argue that settlement is not a destination, but an ongoing, conditional process shaped by the realities of integration. Our multi-method approach revealed a wealth of knowledge, not likely possible from a data collection tool. For example, focus groups revealed entrepreneurial, diaspora-led resettlement initiatives; in-depth interviews with timelines uncovered the cultural texture of resettlement; and the photovoice workshop uncovered how newcomers narrate ideas of home in the past, present, and future. However, findings also show how gaps widen in a chronically underfunded settlement system and in the untargeted informal responses. We argue that participatory and creative methods are not inherently more ethical than conventional ones, but their value lies in how they are put into practice. The article contributes to the literature on participatory research by documenting how sanctuary spaces function as a relational condition, rather than a fixed location.