Stimulating return migration to Romania: a multi-method study of returnees’ endorsement of entrepreneurship policies

Abstract

ABSTRACT This study sought to address an important gap in the contemporary literature on intra-European return migration and examines the factors shaping Romanian returnees’ support for return policies based on entrepreneurship. Empirical evidence collected using a multi-method approach was analysed to identify how various features linked to migration experiences and return influence returnees’ likelihood of supporting these types of policies. The quantitative results of logistic regression analyses were complemented by a systematic analysis of qualitative insights collected through in-depth interviews. The general profile of Romanian returnees who support policies focused on entrepreneurship includes the extension of social networks during migration, improvements in self-confidence levels, longer periods after return and urban residential status. A lower probability of favouring these types of policies is determined by returnees’ positive evaluation of pay levels in the local labour market, remittances during migration periods and a higher importance given to the value of migration in terms of learning foreign languages. The in-depth interviews facilitated the identification of the main lines of discourse about what Romanian returnees and a counterfactual control group of non-migrant entrepreneurs think about return migration policy implementation in Romania.