(In)voluntary Non-migrants? Unfulfilled Migration Intentions under Emigration Restrictions
Journal: Nationalities Papers
Year: 2025

Abstract 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