At the time when there are more people on the move than ever before it is pivotal to explore people’s experiences of return migration. These are particularly important in the context of post-Brexit-vote Britain which stimulated increased returns. Whilst motivations for migration are comparatively well-explored, return migrants’ experiences are less known and migrants’ gender is rarely considered. This paper addresses these gaps. It is based on qualitative research and in-depth interviews with 32 Polish women: 16 migrants in the UK and 16 return migrants in Poland. Considered through the lens of agency and structure, this research uncovers how fluid the process of migration has become, whereby migration motivations and patterns are blurred and interlinked with one another while classic migration theories seem outdated. From the study a new conceptual analysis is developed – an ‘intersection of motivations’ to show how inseparable migration-related motivations are. This paper contributes to the growing literature on East – West return migration and highlights women as migrants and the gendered nature of their mobility.
