The article examines the images that young Slovenian people associate with a decision or intention to emigrate in the future. Through unstructured interviews the author analyzes their imageries as key factors and motivators of future emigration. Beside an imaginary of “somewhere else” the position of the interviewees in the global arena must be taken into account. It turns out that their ambivalent position, on the one hand marked by privilege on the global level and by marginalization in the native country on the other, drives their imageries, which are composed of more than just imagery of somewhere else. These are marked with imageries of space, people, society, time and movement, and have a homogenizing effect on their perception of the “here and now”, and on the “here” in the future. Current location, in this case Slovenia, becomes a single, mostly negative category, opposed to which are the positive qualities that potentially exist elsewhere. “Elsewhere” does not represent only one possible destination, but a multitude of places that have the potential of a better life. And mere potential is enough for the interviewees to imagine emigrating to a destination and living there. Their imagery of ‘abroad’ thus comprises also imagery of the lightness of travel, supported by modern communication and transport networks.
