„Ucieczka do…” jako istotna przyczyna mobilności w Europie
“Escape to...” as an important cause of mobility in Europe

Summary/Abstract: Most modern studies on migration in Europe (and not only) indicates economic factors as the primary emigration motives. Meanwhile, a detailed analysis of autobiographical narrative interviews with people who have chosen to live abroad shows that very often important priorities are completely different. Not completely invalidating the economic factor, we should therefore pay attention to one of the very interesting and not uncommon cause of mobility, which is the “escape”, where different modalities can be placed on a continuum between “escape from” and “escape to”. Although those two cases are discussed in this article, to the second one will be devoted special attention. This motif is associated with an attempt to escape from the conditions (prevailing at home, in the environment, neighborhood, country), which are defined by individual as suffocating, stifling, not allowing to spread wings and fully express oneself. Interestingly, the experience of “otherness” and getting to know different cultural patterns in another country may initiate the process of “re-patriotisation” – a new “objective” perspective on the place of origin and appreciation of its (previously denied) values.

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