Who Wishes to Return? Ties to Home Country Among the Romanian Migrants

Abstract

The research focusing on return migration from the perspective of migrants’ relationship with the country of origin has emphasized the emotional and economic ties. Quite often, these ties have been examined separately and there is little indication of what counts more. This article addresses this gap in the literature and analyzes the extent to which the sense of belonging, media consumption, networks of friends and regular visits in the country of origin could have an effect on the intention to return. It controls for remittances, voting in the elections of their home country and age. The empirical analysis uses an original data set including individual level data. This was collected through an online survey in January 2018 on a sample of 1,839 first generation migrants from Romania.