The 2004 EU extension and the 2008 financial crisis triggered the onset of two ‘new’ migration flows within Europe. We draw on narratives of Polish and Spanish migrants’ considerations about the future to explore how these cases of intra-European migration differ and converge. We find ambivalence about returning to countries of origin, which conflicts with conceptualizations of intra-European migration as ‘liquid’ in the sense of increasing individualization, lifestyles of mobility and a migrant habitus. Family concerns, economic factors and, more specifically, working life conditions in countries of origin are significant in shaping future plans. The notion of a ‘normal life’ emphasized in migrants’ narratives about the future shows the prevalence of migrants’ desire to lead a more  grounded life under less ‘liquid’ conditions. In particular, migrants’ established lives in Norway and deregulated labour markets in Poland and Spain are articulated as preventing return migration. The salient characteristics of South–North and East–West intra-European migration flows to Norway largely appear to converge: both groups of migrants largely follow a transition to longer-term settlement, and both share a wish for more grounded lives, where dignity is central and ongoing mobility is less prominent.