This article delves into the motivations and aspirations of students from post‐Soviet countries who opted for education in Sweden amid the COVID‐19 pandemic. In stark contrast to most nations which enforced stringent lockdown measures to curb the transmission of the coronavirus, Sweden adopted a relatively laissez‐faire approach, keeping significant sectors of society operational. While Sweden's strategy garnered considerable global scrutiny and critique, the students in this study exhibited a notable lack of apprehension regarding the global health crisis or Sweden's controversial approach to the pandemic. For these students, the COVID‐19 pandemic primarily manifested as a practical impediment to their forthcoming academic endeavours. Conversely, they perceived various enduring societal challenges in their countries of origin–such as unemployment, anxiety and distrust towards governmental authorities, and even armed conflict–as possessing a more entrenched and formidable nature, posing a greater threat to their overall well‐being. Against this backdrop, Sweden emerged as a perceived sanctuary capable of reinstating a state of ontological security, especially for the students identifying as members of the LGBTQ+ community and with political convictions frowned upon by the government of their home country. By focusing on the narratives of these individuals and adopting a conceptual framework that views ‘crisis’ as a relational construct, this study sheds light on the divergent experiences and perceptions of the COVID‐19 pandemic among international student cohorts. This approach underscores the nuanced and context‐dependent nature of their responses to the pandemic, emphasising the imperative of empirically accounting for these variations.

中文翻译：

---

迈向安全港：新冠病毒 (COVID-19) 疫情期间在瑞典求学的后苏联国家学生


本文深入探讨了在 COVID-19 大流行期间选择在瑞典接受教育的后苏联国家学生的动机和愿望。与大多数实施严格封锁措施以遏制冠状病毒传播的国家形成鲜明对比的是，瑞典采取了相对自由放任的做法，保持社会重要部门的运转。尽管瑞典的战略受到了全球的广泛关注和批评，但参与这项研究的学生对全球健康危机或瑞典有争议的疫情应对方法表现出明显的缺乏忧虑。对于这些学生来说，COVID-19 大流行主要表现为对他们即将进行的学术努力的实际障碍。相反，他们认为原籍国各种持久的社会挑战——例如失业、对政府当局的焦虑和不信任，甚至武装冲突——具有更加根深蒂固和可怕的性质，对他们的整体福祉构成更大的威胁。在此背景下，瑞典成为一个被认为能够恢复本体论安全状态的避难所，特别是对于那些被认定为 LGBTQ+ 群体成员且其政治信念遭到本国政府不悦的学生而言。通过关注这些人的叙述，并采用将“危机”视为一种关系结构的概念框架，本研究揭示了国际学生群体中对 COVID-19 大流行的不同经历和看法。这种方法强调了他们对大流行的反应的微妙性和依赖于背景的性质，强调了根据经验解释这些变化的必要性。