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This paper is based on research analysing cases of unsuccessful East–West return migration. Specifically, it examines returnees’ expectations, needs and challenges that shape the decision for re-migration or double return migration. Qualitative data were collected from 2020 to 2022 through 16 in-depth biographical interviews. The analysis applies narrative thematic and discursive approaches, focusing on specific word choices and discursive forms. Although subjective and personal factors largely influence the narrators’ mobility, the article highlights the structural factors underlying their unsuccessful return-migration experiences. The research question is: What structural problems have determined returnees’ decisions for double return migration? The results depict return migration as an emotionally driven decision motivated by a sense of belonging, a duty to Latvia, a desire to contribute and institutional encouragement to return. Differences in communication culture, work environment and power relations emerge as key structural challenges contributing to double return migration or leaving the homeland. In analysing the factors prompting narrators to reconsider their return and to leave Latvia for a second time, the study concludes that, during their migration, the interviewees have adopted new values that render them outsiders and make them unwilling to adapt.

Despite representing the second-largest immigrant group in Germany, Polish immigrants and their descendants are understudied and have often been described as ‘invisible’ as they have a reputation of ‘becoming German’ quickly and unproblematically. Challenging this notion and considering the prevalence of anti-Eastern European racism in the German context, this study analyses interviews with 22 highly educated Germans of Polish descent, focusing on how interviewees talked about being German and/or Polish and their experiences of stigmatisation and discrimination, in both their childhood and teenage years and as adults. In so doing, the study contributes to the literature on how the ethnic and national identities of white descendants of immigrants are related to experiences of exclusion. Specifically, some interviewees (Type 1) said that they felt only German (and not Polish) and denied experiencing stigmatisation or discrimination in their present lives. Other interviewees (Type 2) embraced a symbolic Polish ethnicity while framing exclusionary experiences as a thing of the past. Type 3 interviewees reported a process of re-ethnicisation, arguably enabled by the absence of exclusionary experiences in their present lives. Finally, there were interviewees (Type 4) who reported embracing their Polish identity, which led to experiences of stigmatisation in certain contexts.

This article investigates the integration of Vietnamese-origin immigrants into the political sphere in Poland. Drawing on the reconceptualisation of integration as a two-way interactive process between migrant actors and host countries, this study examines the Vietnamese’s political integration by disentangling the migrant group’s willingness to be politically integrated through their participation in the political opportunities granted in the host society. Empirically, this study focuses on the viewpoint of immigrants, analysing the Vietnamese’s latent and manifest political participation in Polish society. By employing mixed-method research with a parallel mixed design utilising qualitative and quantitative data, this study discloses the visibility of political integration into Polish society among Vietnamese-origin immigrants. The integration is characterised by a modest willingness for political engagement, exhibited by a low involvement level in latent activities and a very low rate of engagement in the manifest dimension. Political integration motivation is highly linked to the perception of obligation fulfilment to the host society, the desire to gain recognition from the hosts and the protection of liberal values. The results also uncover a variation in political participation across primary demographic factors, with a high degree of involvement manifested among males, older people and the 1.5 and second generation.

The life strategies of Polish post-accession migrants built after 2004 were based on the specific conditions then prevailing in Poland and the UK. However, conditions have changed over the years and recent events – particularly Brexit and the Covid-19 pandemic – rapidly revalued migrants’ accumulated resources and changed the context of their migration. They have introduced uncertainty about the adopted life strategies, mobilised to once again rethink the future and to make decisions that had often been postponed for many years. The 2018–2021 demographic statistics clearly show an exodus of Poles from the UK from over 1 million in 2017 to fewer than 700,000 by the end of 2021. Despite the correlation of dates, this is not necessarily a result of Brexit or of the pandemic. This article seeks to answer the question of how Brexit impacted on the life strategies of Poles and how could it be a catalyst in their decisions to return to the home country. It is based on qualitative research comprising 30 interviews with Polish migrants in the UK, conducted online in 2020–2021 – thus just after Brexit – and during the coronavirus pandemic.