‘It was Worth Having a Go’ but ‘We Were Forced to Migrate’. Reconciling Contradictions in Poles’, Ukrainians’ and Belarusians’ Retrospective Accounts of their Migration Decision-Making

Based on semi-structured interviews which I conducted in Poland in 2019–24 with Ukrainians, Poles and Belarusians, this article discusses the motifs of coercion and volition in how interviewees talked about making decisions to migrate, move on or return. I try to unravel the apparently contradictory feelings with which they engaged in migration. On the one hand, they were participants in migration waves – large-scale movements of co-nationals which offered opportunities to migrate abroad with a certain security that someone they knew would be on hand to help. On the other hand, while acknowledging that they took such opportunities, sometimes on an experimental basis, labour migrants often say they felt ‘forced’ to migrate. They claim, apparently paradoxically, to have ‘decided’ (rather than ‘realised’) that migration was ‘necessary’. Their belief that they can decide for themselves implies a sense of agency, linked to the fact that neighbours and relatives are making similar choices. However, local migration cultures can act as constraints which make international migration seem ‘naturally’ preferable to livelihoods in their country of origin. The family is also a locus of control and women sometimes emphasised that they did not have a free choice: the household migration strategy was decided by their husband or partner.