(In)voluntary Non-migrants? Unfulfilled Migration Intentions under Emigration Restrictions

Bibliographic Data

ID11048858
AuthorsZuzanna Brunarska (0000-0001-6804-6716, University of Warsaw, corresponding author)
Year2026
Volume54
Issue2
Pages309-324
Publication date2026-03-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueNationalities Papers (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0090-5992 • E-ISSN: 1465-3923
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/nps.2025.10088
OpenAlexW4412761271
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited48

The article addresses the question of the distinction between voluntary and involuntary immobility under emigration restrictions. Based on semi-structured in-depth interviews with people whose family members intended to emigrate from the Polish People’s Republic and the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic but who have not fulfilled their intentions, it examines the role of the would-be migrant’s agency in driving the immobility outcome under the narrow opportunity structure for international mobility. The analysis of reasons for the emigration intentions of formerly aspiring migrants having remained unfulfilled demonstrates that the boundary between voluntary and involuntary immobility – similar to that of voluntary versus forced migration – is often blurred. The studied cases suggest it is more justified to view immobility through the lens of a continuum of (in)voluntariness rather than as a voluntary-involuntary binary. Moreover, the study shows how the blurriness of the boundary between voluntary and involuntary immobility may be understood through changes over time in the reasons for the non-realization of one’s migration intentions

Demographic economics · Economics · Emigration · Management · Political science · Turnover · Diaspora, migration, transnational identity · Law · Migration and Labor Dynamics · Migration, Refugees, and Integration · Psychology

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