Irregularised migration from Albania to the United Kingdom emerges as a governance-produced status, negotiated through socioculturally mediated practices, rather than as a criminal propensity. Drawing on digital-historical ethnography with Albanian migrants who entered the UK via irregularised routes (2015–2020) and a Bourdieusian relational approach, this article explores how emic grammars of kurbet (obligatory sacrifice), kanun (reputational ordering) and besa (commitments of trust) shape the interpretation and moral evaluation of mobility. Through repeated enactment, these grammars sediment as dispositions within a mobile habitus (endurance, reputational vigilance, reciprocity expectations) and mobilise resources (trust guarantees, route knowledge, embodied resilience) that become capital only when recognised as valuable within specific fields (kinship, diaspora, brokerage, algorithmic field). Yet, within UK border-labour regimes, often mediated through intermediaries, the same resources are misrecognised as illegality or commodified as priced intermediation, producing ambivalent effects that normalise risk and recalibrate moral obligations. The article contributes a relational theory-of-practice account that links irregularisation to field-specific regimes of recognition and valuation.

International retirement migration (IRM) is a constantly diversifying phenomenon, in which new concepts and geographies are emerging and new social groups are becoming involved. In this paper, we intend to fill a research gap in terms of the geographical scope of IRM by focusing on Hungary as a host country for a growing number of older migrants from Western European countries. The paper focuses, in particular, on older German citizens settled in rural Hungary, who constitute the largest group of Western European migrants illustrated both by statistical data and empirical evidence. Based on semi-structured interviews conducted with German migrants over 50 years of age living in small peripheral villages, we show how they explain and justify their decision to relocate to Hungary. Based on this empirical evidence, we demonstrate the complex and changing nexus of economic, lifestyle-oriented, political and ideological motivations shaping the decision to migrate. While, regardless of the period of migration, economic and lifestyle-oriented considerations can be identified as determining factors in migration decisions, the narratives of those German citizens aged over 50 who have relocated since the mid-2010s emphasise their dissatisfaction with the political and social circumstances in their home country as a primary incentive to migrate and portraying Hungary as an attractive destination in political and ideological terms.

The posting of workers has been fiercely discussed and analysed as a mechanism of social dumping in the Western European labour markets. This paper takes a reverse perspective and analyses the posting of workers in Slovakia as an Eastern European case whereby posting is presented as a multifaceted labour mobility instrument. We combine a review of the national regulatory framework and administrative data with stakeholder interviews to provide a rich account of why and how posting is used by employers and regulated and enforced by public authorities. We show that, while posting is a specific instrument of short-term intra-EU mobility formally enabling the mobility of services, it effectively plays a much wider role, transcending the low-cost competitiveness objective. We argue that the rise and embedding of posting in Slovakia is sustained by a specific regulatory and labour market context which is reliant on a flexible workforce with a weak enforcement of labour rights and characterised by erratic policy changes. Our study illustrates that the divide in the posting literature between sending and receiving countries is becoming outdated because supposed ‘sending’ countries like Slovakia are receiving substantial numbers of posted workers; they are also increasingly posting in a different way to earlier.

In both Poland and France, gender, sexuality and reproduction are central to the constructions of nationhood and statehood, with categories such as race, religion and ethnicity playing a crucial role in public debates surrounding sex, family planning and the roles of men and women. This article employs the theoretical framework of belonging and the politics of belonging to examine how Polish migrants in Paris and the surrounding region of Île-de-France renegotiate their identities in relation to broader national and global discourses on gender, race and religion. Focusing on first-generation migrants from diverse working- and middle-class backgrounds, the analysis explores how they navigate belonging to various collectivities – whether national, diasporic or religious communities – and how they assert their deservingness to live in the host country, maintain ties to their homeland, participate in civil society or cultivate a sense of cosmopolitan identity.

The article synthesises and reviews existing research on Polish migrants in the Nordic countries with a specific focus on gender identities and gender roles. The authors argue that migrants from Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) fall between the cracks in the current research on gender equality and migration in the Nordic countries. Being the trademarks of the Nordics, the ideals of gender equality and sexual rights play an important role in the debate about migration. However, the dominant focus of the current research is non-Western racialised migrant groups. While migrants from Poland are privileged as white and European, they come from the context with less egalitarian gender norms and the weaker state policies supporting gender equality. The article aims to understand how Polish migrants navigate this difference in gender values and norms between home and host societies. The article concludes that structural factors are important for migrants’ ability to learn and adopt the gender norms of the host society. In line with the translocational approach, migrants navigate between home and host societies, choosing appropriate gender roles accordingly. The social status, the degree of integration and the sense of (non)belonging also play a crucial role in migrants’ openness to the norms of the host society. The article also suggests several directions for further research.

This paper explores the values and beliefs of young Georgian migrants (aged 18 to 29) who emigrated from Georgia to Berlin. Based on 30 qualitative in-depth interviews, the study examines how migration experiences have influenced and potentially reshaped the values and beliefs of young Georgians. Reflecting on their lives and experiences post-migration and the differences they observed between living in Georgia and living in Germany, the participants revealed which values are important to them and which have changed following migration. Based on the inductive thematic coding of qualitative interviews using NVivo software, the study findings suggest that young Georgian migrants tend to adopt more individualistic values associated with personal independence and space, freedom, self-exploration and a deeper understanding of their identities and preferences. Empathy, tolerance towards diverse groups and openness to new opportunities and ideas also emerged as significant values. The findings raise an important question: Did young migrants already possess these individualistic values before migrating, which then flourished in a more supportive environment, or are we witnessing a transformation from a more collectivistic value system to a relatively individualistic one, as reported by the study participants?

In migration studies, integration is predominantly conceptualised by scholars as a ‘two-way’ process. In practice, however, migrants are increasingly being held responsible for integration. In this article, grounded in qualitative data from Poland – collected between 2021–2022 from young migrants and representatives of NGOs and public institutions supporting migrants – we explore how they perceive and experience this process. We argue that, influenced by neoliberal discourses of individuality, migrants often view the challenge of integration as their personal responsibility – a phenomenon we refer to as self-responsibilisation. Thus, we identify and analyse three intersecting and mutually reinforcing processes: 1) the shift of responsibility for integration onto young migrants as a consequence of state negligence, 2) the asymmetry of responsibility as a result of the host society’s othering of migrants and 3) self-responsibilisation as a consequence of migrants’ internalisation of responsibility for integration. Together, they form what we call the self-perpetuating mechanism of (self)responsibilisation of young migrants for integration. Our analysis indicates that this mechanism may lead to the empowerment of young migrants although it can also foster the normalisation of structural constraints, hinder the migrants’ access to available support, increase stress and may even contribute to deteriorating mental and physical health.

This paper focuses on a relatively under-researched group of emerging adults. The main goal was to see whether gendered patterns, inherited cultural capital, economic situation and domicile specifics – as well as available mobility strategies reproduced in internationally mobile families and mobile peer networks – correlate with the current and future mobility of emerging adults. The survey was based on a random sample of 302 Poles aged between 18 and 29. The level of migratory readiness and mobility experiences is higher than in older cohorts. The logistic regression models show that migratory readiness diminishes with age and increases with a higher level of inherited cultural capital and in respondents who socialise in transnational families. Respondents from internationally mobile families were also more mobile. Interestingly, while gender is not associated with migratory readiness, it correlates with past mobility, with a higher level of mobility among males. The transition to adulthood, requiring entering new social roles, reduces the readiness but not the actual mobility. The only factor associated with both migratory readiness and past mobility was socialisation in internationally mobile families. This underlines the role of reproduction of the migratory culture.

The lived experiences of Transnational Carer-Employees (TCEs) are becoming increasingly relevant to workplace scholarship surrounding caregiving. Furthermore, the conversations around Caregiver Friendly Workplace Policies (CFWPs) are growing due to their significance in helping caregivers to manage their care and work duties. In Canada, the growing immigrant population has led to an increased number of TCEs, yet their experiences remain understudied. The current qualitative study addresses the gap for a better understanding of TCEs experiences by exploring the lived experiences of European TCEs and their perception of CFWPs in Ontario, Canada. The findings suggest that European TCEs’ caregiving experiences are shaped by cultural expectations, including those based on gender. Participants provided practical, emotional and technology-based transnational caregiving. Their caregiving experiences were impacted on by their roles as paid employees. Transnational considerations such as travel time make negotiating paid work and caregiving complex. Participants reported overall positive experiences with their employers, regarding the accommodation of their needs to provide transnational care. However, there was a lack of awareness of CFWPs. Without these policies, TCEs and other carer-employees must navigate difficult conversations with employers in order to manage work expectations and caregiving responsibilities.