Migration theories explaining why people migrate to other countries have largely focussed on rational or historical-structural explanations, which do not take into account human agency. Other scholars have stressed an agency centred approach to include aspirations and capabilities (De Hass, 2021), which captures both the human need to develop one’s life and the structural conditions that can shape migrant choices. What has been missing thus far in the migration literature is the role of morality in migrant decision making. Migration decisions are not always related to aspirations to migrate for a better life but can also be a decision based around the moral implications of staying. I argue in this paper that migration can also be a moral position and form of protest against authoritarian/oppressive regimes. Using the case study of the anti-war Russian diaspora in the UK, and interviews with 20 activists and politically mobilised diaspora, I demonstrate how migration decisions and diasporic transnationalism have been motivated by moral stances against the war and the regime of Vladimir Putin. Not only have over 1 million Russians fled the country since February 2022, but Russians in the diaspora have been actively helping their fellow Russian citizens to leave through diasporic community networks, transnational organisations helping Russians to leave or escape mobilisation, and lobbying the UK and Eu governments in support of opposition Russians. What the case reveals is that morality plays a key part in people’s choices to leave and activism against authoritarian regimes but that migration is still conditioned by socio-economic capabilities.
