Reflections on return migration: Understanding how African immigrants in Canada contemplate return

Abstract

AbstractEven though research on return migration has flourished in the last decade, we still know very little about how immigrants contemplate the decision to return to the homeland. Using multinomial logistic regression, we examined the variables underpinning the return intentions of African immigrants in Canada—specifically, Ghanaians and Somalis in Toronto and Vancouver. Our key independent variables included immigrants’ socioeconomic characteristics, their time‐ and place‐utility factors, their attachments to the homeland, their integration into the Canadian society and their perceived levels of racism in Canada. We found that respondents who were born in Somalia were less likely to have return intentions, compared with those who were born in Ghana. Also, those who lived in Toronto were more likely to have return intentions relative to those who lived in Vancouver. Moreover, those who perceived the level of racism in Canada to be high were more likely to have return intentions.