Domicide and Homemaking in Times of War: Ukrainian Female Labor Migrants in Israel

This article examines domicide and homemaking among Ukrainian temporary labor migrants in Israel, shaped by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the Israel-Hamas war. Living between two wars compels these women to navigate both the destruction and the creation of home, producing fragile and layered attachments across borders. Based on 26 in-depth interviews and participant observation, the study analyzes four interconnected domains of homemaking and displacement: (im)possibility, community building, familiarity, and (in)security, drawing on theories of home and ethnographies of conflict. The findings show that homemaking is simultaneously enabled and disrupted by displacement, temporariness, and domicide. Although violence and loss undermine stability, everyday practices of care, social connection, and the cultivation of familiarity through religion, pilgrimage, tourism, and leisure allow women to sustain belonging in Israel while mourning destroyed or inaccessible homes in Ukraine. The article demonstrates that homemaking in times of war becomes a continuous process of resilience, adaptation, and negotiation amid insecurity and transnational displacement.