ABSTRACT The former Soviet Union's restrictions on citizens' foreign travel or emigration were notoriously draconian. Yet what replaced them in the fifteen independent states of the post‐Soviet region has not been well analysed. Outside the Baltic republics, the monolithic and prohibitive policies of the Soviet past have given way to a patchwork of restrictions with more complex motivations reflecting the diversity of contemporary Eurasian states. However, while many more people in the region can travel abroad when they wish, exit remains a privilege, rather than an enforceable right. Post‐Soviet states' exit policies increasingly resemble those in other primarily authoritarian contexts around the world, albeit somewhat marked by Eurasian regimes' high levels of both coercive capacity and informality and the weakness of labour and the left. We conclude that the USSR's fixation on preventing exit was historically exceptional as a policy on foreign travel, rather than paradigmatic, and severely limited the regime's own migration policy options. In a paradox, the relaxation of blanket prohibitions has only increased the post‐Soviet state's freedom to tailor restrictions on exit to its interests far more effectively than the USSR ever could.

ABSTRACT This study explored the mental distress experienced by migrant domestic workers (MDWs) in Lebanon under the Kafala (sponsorship) system, adopting a dual lens that considers both workers' lived realities and the host society's social‐psychological processes. Drawing on intersectionality and social psychology, the analysis examines how intersecting forms of discrimination, rooted in race, gender, class and legal status, combine with crisis contexts, such as Lebanon's economic collapse and the Beirut port explosion, to deepen psychological harm. The study interrogated the cultural narratives, moral hierarchies and ingroup/outgroup dynamics that normalise or obscure these conditions, situating the Lebanese Kafala regime within broader regional labour migration systems. Findings reveal a cyclical dynamic in which legal precarity, racialised labour hierarchies and societal attitudes reinforce both structural abuse and social invisibility. While MDWs mobilise coping strategies including solidarity networks, digital mobilisation, religious practices and community‐based initiatives, these remain constrained by systemic exclusion from national services and persistent stigma. The study argued that meaningful reform requires dismantling both the legal architecture of Kafala and the social‐psychological mechanisms that sustain it, coupling structural change with culturally responsive psychosocial interventions and regional labour governance reforms.

ABSTRACT Over a 15‐year period beginning in 2006, the European Commission (EC), through the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA), inspected Philippine compliance to the International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification, and Watchkeeping for Seafarers (STCW), which governs globally the training, certification, and watchkeeping of seafarers. This article examines the EC as a regulatory actor, approaching it through the lens of regulatory intermediation. Drawing on interviews and analysis of documents, reports, and secondary literature, it identifies a confluence of interests among the regulator, intermediary, and target as a vitally important element that led to an outcome beneficial to all but especially the EU and the Philippines. The Philippines implemented the most consequential reforms ever undertaken in its maritime administration and education infrastructure, resulting in the EC's continued recognition of the certificates of Filipino seafarers that guaranteed their continued employment on European Union (EU)‐flagged ships.

ABSTRACT This article examines the reintegration experiences of Ukrainians who fled the country to the European Union (EU) following Russia's 2022 invasion and subsequently returned while the country was still at war. Employing a mixed‐methods approach—including surveys, semi‐structured interviews and field observations in Ukraine—the study focuses on the experiences of returnees. By 2025, over 1.2 million Ukrainians had returned from abroad, predominantly women and children from the EU but also from other countries. Return trajectories varied: some returned shortly after displacement, motivated by a strong sense of belonging and sustained ties to Ukraine, while others remained abroad longer and encountered more complex reintegration processes. Most returnees resettled in their original regions, and many found employment quickly amid wartime labour shortages. Although patriotic sentiment intensified during displacement, trust in Ukrainian public institutions remained low. Return was often marked by a decline in life satisfaction and mental health, underlining the psychological challenges of reintegration under war conditions. The study highlights the urgent need for evidence‐based reintegration policies that respond to returnees' lived realities that are crucial for Ukraine's recovery, resilience and social cohesion.

ABSTRACT In this article, we investigate the category of returned migrants from Greece who own a small business in Albania. Using the snowball method, we conducted semi‐structured interviews with returnee entrepreneurs, who have been living in three cities of Albania, i.e., Tirana, Vlora and Durrës, for over a year. Our research is focused on the reasons for their return to Albania, the decision to establish a business and the difficulties they face as business owners. We also look at the outcome of their efforts, which is an aspect of Albanian return migration that remains relatively unexplored. In Greece, they had gained work experience and accumulated savings, which they used in Albania. While they were initially optimistic about their decision to return and start a business, they later faced many challenges related to the workings of the market, the relations with the local authorities and their employees, which drove many to closure. Being an entrepreneur in Albania was much more difficult than expected. In this paper, we argue that the returnees' individual skills and resources are not sufficient factors for achieving their entrepreneurial aspirations. Their initiatives are constrained by challenges related to the home country context and weak social networks. For a significant number of returned migrants, the difficulties in dealing with corruption and the poor performance of their business bring an end to their entrepreneurship and force them to remigrate. Hence, this paper looks to contribute to the discussion on factors shaping return decisions, the situation of returnee entrepreneurs and reintegration outcomes, by providing empirical results from an important migration–return–remigration corridor, namely Albania–Greece.

ABSTRACT Migrants often say their ‘visa is being processed’. The person on a visa to work, study or seek entry for asylum does not carry themselves intact into the lives that follow: restrictions, temporariness and dependencies shape migrant lifeways in profound ways. Building on critical migration and feminist perspectives on accumulation and migrant governmentality, this paper utilises insights from research on work visas to conceptualise how visas and the larger order of visa classes mobilise a doctrine of fragmentation–reconstitution that evacuates vital forms of autonomy from migrants and reassembles them into particular value‐productive, governable subjects. Specifically, analysis of US visa classes theorises here the concurrent accumulation of multimodal value, constituted by: labour subordination (economic value), the making of definition and visibility (optogenic value), alongside classificatory knowledge about migrants (epistemic value) and disciplinary power distributed to institutions, such as farms, companies or universities, that is, where migrants become subjects of governmentality (political value).

ABSTRACT The landscape of aid and refugee protection is undergoing profound and unsettling change. Cuts to humanitarian programmes, the rise of privatised and securitised approaches, and the growing reliance on temporary and externalised solutions are reshaping both the lives of displaced people and the institutions meant to protect them. These shifts raise urgent questions not only about the future of asylum and resettlement but also about how we, as researchers or practitioners, should respond. This commentary identifies worrying normative and political developments in Europe and beyond and considers what they mean for us and the people we work with. It also discusses whether the current moment offers an opportunity to radically reimagine and rebuild systems of aid and protection.

ABSTRACT State use of organised forced migration has played a central role in geopolitics and foreign policy. In this piece, we draw attention to its prevalence, including its widespread use as a tool in contemporary migration management policies. In order to effectively tackle questions of forced migration, it is necessary to first recognise that it is frequently purposefully perpetuated by states.