Forced Migrants’ Agency in Transit

This book examines how forced migrants living in transit countries develop strategies for their future lives, weighing the options of returning home, moving on, or staying where they are. Developing an innovative conceptual framework, the authors advance understanding of agency beyond the conventional aspirations-and-abilities model, showing how agency under severe constraint is shaped by micro- and macrosocial contexts, migrants' assets and social entanglements as well as by their own experiences, preferences and expectations.Based on a longitudinal, interdisciplinary study conducted between 2022 and 2025, the book analyses and compares the migratory life courses and biographical projects of forced migrants residing in Colombia, Mexico, Jordan and Türkiye. Integrating qualitative and quantitative methods, the book offers a rich comparative account of how individuals navigate critical life decisions under conditions of coercion and violence.This book will be essential reading for scholars and students in forced migration, refugee, and mobility studies, as well as those working in the sociology and anthropology of migration. Its policy-relevant conclusions will also appeal to practitioners and policymakers in governmental and non-governmental organizations.