Ukraine remains today one of the main migrant sending countries in Europe, with thousands of Ukrainians working in Czechia, Italy, Poland and Russia. In this regard, Ukraine shares the previous experience of Central European countries such as the Baltic States, Poland and Slovakia, that in the 1990s and early 2000s registered first temporary, and later permanent, outflows. In more recent years, however, many Central and Eastern European countries started to register increasing numbers of immigrants and some of them have switched from net sending to net receiving migration regimes. The objective of this article is to discuss the possibility of a similar turnaround in Ukraine; to this end, we investigate the main quantitative data on mi-gration from and to Ukraine, and interpret this information in the light of selected theoretical approaches that have been used to explain migration in Central and Eastern Europe. The available data reveal high levels of labour emigration of both temporary and permanent character, the increasing propensity of mi-grants to settle down in the host countries, and the growing involvement of the youngest cohorts in the emi-gration. Despite this evidence we argue that the current situation by no means constitutes a premise for reversing the outflow from Ukraine. We conclude that the most recent improvements in general economic indicators will not lead to high levels of immigration without an active labour market policy towards foreigners.

In the post-communist era, the European migration space changed significantly. It has become charac-terised predominantly by temporary labour migration and new forms of circular, return and onward migration which are collectively theorised as ‘liquid’. The 2004/2007 eastward expansion of the EU resulted in the re-emergence of large-scale East-West intra-EU migration; however, Czechia continues to have one of the lowest levels of emigration among EU member-states in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). This article analyses Czech migration to New Zealand, which constitutes a considerable portion of overall Czech emigration. It is hypothesised that this flow can be understood as an example of ‘liquid’ migration beyond the EU to a distant settler society. Data from Immigration New Zealand and Stats NZ are examined to identify the trends, patterns and sociodemographic profile of Czech-to-New Zealand migration; other secondary sources provide a preliminary sketch of the motivations behind (and lived experiences of) Czech migrants in New Zealand. The study finds that this migration is increasing – mostly for temporary work, holidaying or visiting friends and relatives – and one of the largest, young-est and most recently arrived migrant groups from the CEE EU-10 countries. It is concluded that Czechia’s comparatively high standard of living may be an explanatory factor behind the relatively large flow of its people to New Zealand and that further qualitative investigation is needed to elucidate the motivations and diverse experiences of individual Czech migrants. The article ultimately contributes to comparative migration studies by exploring a potentially unique case of liquid migration to a tradi-tional settler society.

This article presents the main recent developments in migration trends to and from Belarus. It studies these trends via the migration systems theory lenses, according to which Belarus belongs to the Eurasian migra-tion system. The most significant migration flows are directed towards Russia, due to the existence of the Union State. However, over the last decade, Belarusian statistics have shown a gradual transformation in the direction of these migration flows. After the recession in Russia in 2015, the number of emigrants from Belarus to EU countries increased. The most significant changes have occurred in the migration dynamics between Belarus and Poland and Lithuania. The existence of the Pole’s Card makes it more difficult to measure the number of Belarusian immigrants in Poland, therefore, I provide a comparative analysis of Belarusian and Polish statistics in order to show a more realistic picture of the number and structure of Belarusian emigrants and the problem of underestimation in the sending country. Particular attention is paid to the consequences of the political situation in Belarus after 2020; this has become an additional push factor for emigrants and may also lead to a further reduction of Belarusian migratory links within the Eurasian migration system. Thus, the statistics for 2021 show a significant increase in the number of Bel-arusian emigrants to the EU, while emigration to Russia has remained at the same level.