Enduring Aspirations and Continuous Mobility: Formation, Realisation and Repression of Migration Aspirations of Afghan Returnees

Abstract

This study examines how migration aspirations among Afghan returnees are formed, realised and repressed within a context of prolonged instability and authoritarian governance. Drawing on 32 life history interviews conducted in Kabul, Herat, Kandahar and Balkh, and using Jørgen Carling's theoretical framework, the analysis shows that migration aspirations are not fleeting responses to crisis but enduring life strategies shaped by systemic exclusion, structural inequality and evolving socio-political constraints. Aspirations persist and often intensify in the face of return, repression and limited legal pathways—prompting strategic recalibrations through educational migration, humanitarian routes and transnational networks. The study highlights the gendered dimensions of aspiration, particularly the growing role of migration as a means of resisting institutionalised restrictions on women. The findings call for a shift in migration governance—from containment toward rights-based legal pathways that respond to the realities of Afghan mobility and contribute to regional stability.