Migrating for Conflict

Abstract

This thesis explores the motivations of foreign fighters involved in the Eastern Ukraine conflict between 2014 and 2021. After examining the literature on foreign fighters and recruitment strategies in general as well as literature specific to the Donbass conflict and its foreign fighter involvement, the study analyzes interviews and articles quoting 42 foreign fighters who had traveled to Donbass in order to support the pro-separatist or pro-Ukrainian forces, using the migration theory of push-pull model and the constructivist theory on collective identity. In doing this, the study aims to direct the focus in academic research on foreign fighting away from stereotypical Islamist Jihadists while also placing foreign fighting under a migration studies lens. The exploratory study is able to identify influential push and pull factors in addition to concluding that some factors are not as relevant. Most importantly, the study presents six collective identities which mobilize individuals from abroad to join the conflict, describing how these identities are formed and how they change with the individuals’ experiences as foreign fighters.