Lives on Hold Between the European Union and Ukraine: Ukrainian Migrants’ Return Before and After the War

This chapter explores Ukrainian return, remigration, or resettlement before and after the war caused by Russian invasion in February 2022. Based on Koser and Kuschminder (Comparative research on the assisted voluntary return and reintegration of migrants. International Organization for Migration, 343, 2015), the authors explore how individual factors, structural determinants, and policy interventions affect Ukrainians’ migration or returns. Using systematic content analysis methods on publicly available data, the authors found that individual factors, especially the extent of familial and communal connections, have become the leading determinants of Ukrainian war refugees’ return from European countries. Structural determinants and policy interventions, on the other hand, were the key factors of Ukrainian migrants’ return during the pre-war period. The conclusion discusses some implications for post-war return preparation in Ukraine.