Return Migration Research Articles

Moving from opportunity: Intergenerational mobility of rural–urban return migrants in Sweden, 1890s–1940s

AbstractUsing a novel longitudinal dataset, we study the intergenerational mobility of rural–urban migrants who returned to the countryside in due course. By examining pairs of brothers during the entire migration lifecycle – from childhood until age 34 – we estimate the effect of temporarily relocating to an urban area on occupational income over the mature working ages of 35–44 between the 1890s and the 1940s in Sweden. The results show that rural–urban migrants who returned to the countryside were not failures who did not improve their social position, but instead experienced substantial gains compared with their non‐migrant brothers. These gains were similar to those of migrants who had permanently settled in urban areas. This pattern is mainly attributed to their capacities to leave farming and enter white‐collar positions to a greater extent than non‐migrants. The extent of temporary rural–urban migration, combined with the high levels of intergenerational mobility of return migrants in Sweden during the period examined, suggests that rural–urban migration to towns resulted in positive feedback effects for the countryside.

Understanding the experiences of return and re-adaptation among Polish returnees from long-term international migration: a conceptual framework of re-adaptation

We already know from studies of return migration that factors such as migration duration, return preparedness, and willingness, or returned migrants’ collisions with the home country reality, are vital to their post-return re-adaptation. We know less about which spheres re-adaptation goes most smoothly or is most difficult. Through the analysis of research results, this article proposes a conceptual framework for studying return mobilities and thus contributes to a better understanding of return and re-adaptation realities. Drawing upon 33 interviews with Polish long-term international migrants returning to Poland, the text analyzes their re-adaptation in three layers: individual experience, social relationships, and social environment, and thus, reveals various degrees of re-adaptation. The analysis demonstrates that a complete return requires adaptation in all three layers. Nevertheless, the individual experiencing of return is crucial and determines the process in other layers. To better understand re-adaptation, future research needs to elaborate more on migrants’ individual properties that govern the post-return experiences and to consider the perspective of the receiving society that does or does not welcome the returnees.

The Effects of Rearing Environment on Organization of the Olfactory System and Brain of Juvenile Sockeye Salmon, Oncorhynchus nerka.

Pacific salmon (Oncorhynchus spp.) hatch and feed in freshwater habitats, migrate to sea to mature, and return to spawn at natal sites. The final, riverine stages of the return migrations are mediated by chemical properties of the natal stream that they learned as juveniles. Like some other fish, salmon growth is asymptotic; they grow continuously throughout life toward a maximum size. The continued growth of the nervous system may be plastic in response to environmental variables. Due to the ecological, cultural, and economic importance of Pacific salmon, individuals are often reared in hatcheries and released into the wild as juveniles to supplement natural populations. However, hatchery-reared individuals display lower survivorship and may also stray (i.e., spawn in a non-natal stream) at higher rates than their wild counterparts. Hatchery environments may lack stimuli needed to promote normal development of the nervous system, thus leading to behavioral deficits and a higher incidence of straying. This study compared the peripheral olfactory system and brain organization of hatchery-reared and wild-origin sockeye salmon fry (Oncorhynchus nerka). Surface area of the olfactory rosette, diameter of the olfactory nerve, total brain size, and size of major brain regions were measured from histological sections and compared between wild and hatchery-origin individuals. Hatchery-origin fish had significantly larger optic tecta, and marginally insignificant, yet noteworthy trends, existed in the valvula cerebelli (hatchery>wild) and olfactory bulbs (hatchery<wild). We also found a putative difference in olfactory nerve diameter (dmin) (hatchery>wild), but the validity of this finding needs further analyses with higher resolution methods. Overall, these results provide insight into the potential effects of hatchery rearing on nervous system development in salmonids, and may explain behavioral deficits displayed by hatchery-origin individuals post-release.

Democracy Matters (To Some Extent): Autocracies, Democracies and the Forced Return of Migrants from the EU

ABSTRACT This article analyses whether the European Union returns more irregular migrants to democratic or autocratic states. It establishes the EU’s return rates with the whole world over a period of twelve years (2008–2019) and connects it to non-EU countries’ democratic credentials. Democracy mattered to some extent in the sense that the EU had generally fewer return orders and higher return rates with democratic states. Yet, a macro perspective indicates that the EU was driven by an interest to maximise returns to non-EU countries, irrespective of the regime type. Some autocratic regimes – and those that became more autocratic – had high return rates and were actively targeted for achieving more returns. A non-EU country’s change towards more or less democratic standards had a comparatively minor likelihood of impacting the EU return rate.

An ethnographic study of Vietnamese-Ukrainian identity

ABSTRACT Vietnamese Ukrainians are a largely unstudied identity group that has recently attracted attention due to the impacts of the Russo-Ukrainian War. Our study examines Vietnamese-Ukrainian bicultural identity as experienced by 10 university student refugees of the war in 2022–23. Researchers conducted semi-structured ethnographic interviews in which each participant examined identity formation experiences as second-generation Vietnamese Ukrainians. Participants also reflected upon the impacts to ethnic identity self-awareness that resulted from their unexpected return migration to Vietnam as student refugees of war. The cohort of study participants created a tight-knit Vietnamese-Ukrainian return diaspora in an environment conducive to self-reflection and exploration of their ongoing ethnic identity journeys. In our study, we argue that the ethnic identity formation of young Vietnamese Ukrainians relies on the active construction of intercultural personhood as an adaptation to transnational mobility and change.

The realities of return migration: Reintegrating women migrant domestic workers in Sri Lanka

This paper critically analyzes the Sri Lankan government’s management of return migration. Adopting an intersectional lens, it examines how exclusionary policies and programs fail to protect the rights and welfare of returnee women migrant domestic workers, resulting in poor reintegration outcomes. The paper focuses on three interconnecting issues that disproportionately impact upon their rights, as revealed by empirical fieldwork carried out in Colombo in 2018. Research findings from interviews and focus group discussions with civil society organizations (9), government agencies (3) and international organizations (3) highlight the need for an inclusive policy approach. Such an approach would involve a holistic response guided by inter-agency coordination and comprehensive data that would better tailor services to the specific skillsets and diverse circumstances of returnee women domestic workers.

Accumulating delay: Filipino Time, COVID-19 and experiences of male returnees in Cebu

Unique to this paper is a gendered examination of return migration from the point of view of male return migrants. I analyze the perspectives of repatriated male migrant workers during their return migration in the time of the COVID-19 pandemic. Through a discussion of time as “accumulated delay,” I suggest that the (de)constructions of masculinity concerning overseas Filipino workers’ (OFWs) experiences of waiting and delay under repatriation and quarantine can be understood through the theoretical lens of immobility in migration research. I suggest that systemic delays in the circulation of global capital, necessitated by the global health pandemic, challenged migrant men’s cohesive narrative of migrant productivity.

The role of immigration in a deep recession

This paper studies the impact of pre-Great Recession immigrant inflows on the labour market during a recession. It develops a random search model of the labour market featuring vacancy persistence, endogenous return migration, and wage rigidity. Consistent with the Spanish data, some immigrants in the model leave the country during the recession, freeing up jobs for natives. Yet, differences in match-quality draws between immigrants and natives also impact firms’ job creation decisions. The return-migration channel positively affects natives, while job creation effects are negative in the calibrated Spanish economy. I find that immigrants mitigate the impact of the recession and enhance natives’ welfare. During the recession, the native unemployment rate would have been 2 percentage points higher in the absence of the pre-crisis immigration boom. Return migration plays a key role, with short- and medium-run impacts on the native unemployment rate 6 times larger than all other channels combined.

The feeling of destiny: taqdeer and ‘voluntary’ return in the everyday lives of irregularised Pakistani migrants

ABSTRACT This article inquires into how rejected asylum seekers and returning migrants feel and make sense of their (im)mobility. Focusing on the emic concept of taqdeer (destiny), it explores how Pakistani migrants affectively experience and interpret restrictive mobility regimes. The article contextualises the value of destiny in the lives of irregularised migrants, (rejected) asylum seekers with an order to leave, as well as those who return under such circumstances. It explores how perspectives, narratives and feelings of destiny form an integral part of their lived experiences: How a shared understanding of taqdeer primarily serves as a means to communicate affective states but also serves as an important way to accept or contest diverse situations of (im)mobility, experiences of irregularisation and return. I argue that taqdeer is an integral part of the affective economy of (return) migration and often aids people in meaning-making and provides them with a way to engage with the vulnerabilities and gendered burdens of irregularised migration and return. The concept of destiny furthers ethnographic understanding of the intimate entanglement of the bureaucratic and divine dimensions of (im)mobility in the lives of irregularised Muslim migrants.

Lifetime internal migration trajectories and social networks: Do repeat migrants fare worst?

While the economic benefits of internal migration are widely documented, the social costs of internal migration have received comparatively less attention. In addition, most studies focus on the impact of the last-recorded migration, ignoring the cumulative impact of successive migrations. Grounded in the life-course trajectory approach to migration and the convoy model of social networks, this paper addresses this gap by applying sequence and cluster analysis to retrospective data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) in 26 European countries to establish internal migration trajectories based on the timing, frequency, and direction of migration between NUTS-2 regions. The results reveal that differences in social networks between lifetime stayers, childhood migrants and one-time adult migrants are minimal. A more complex picture emerges for repeat migrants who account for half migrants and are split between return migrants, serial onward migrants, and circular migrants. Regression results show that repeat migrants – whether onward, return, or circular – display social networks less focused on family and more geographically dispersed, which results in a lower frequency of contact than lifetime stayers. However, repeat migrants report the same level of overall satisfaction with their social networks as lifetime stayers, which suggests that they start with different expectations than stayers or simply adjust their expectations in response to the social costs and benefits of migration.

Return, adaptation, and transnational relations among Estonian citizens returned from Finland

ABSTRACT A growth in return migration has prompted increasing inquiries into its effects on the countries of origin and the adaptation of returning migrants. This article studies the return, adaptation, and transnational relations among Estonian citizens returned from Finland. The material derives from interviews of 41 Estonian speakers and 19 Russian speakers who returned to Estonia. Many migrants made the actual return decision rather rapidly. Overall, most returned migrants adapted easily to Estonia. Most returned to work and had intensive social networks in Estonia. They maintained contact with Finland but often mainly with Estonians living there. Only a few consider onward migration.

‘Get back to where you once belonged’? Effects of skilled internal migration on Italian regional green growth

The paper investigates the effects of internal migration on green growth in Italian regions. We use employment in "sustainable" sectors to measure green growth, resorting to a novel measure based on the EU taxonomy for sustainable activities. Using data from 103 Italian regions (NUTS3) from 2008 to 2018, we find that highly skilled interregional migrants are positively related to green employment in their destinations. The effect is possibly due to return migrants to the Southern regions. Overall, the evidence emphasizes the importance of human capital migration in sustainable development.

Coerced return: formal policies, informal practices and migrants’ navigation

ABSTRACT This article raises two questions: (1) how do formal policies and informal practices intersect in coercing returns of migrants without legal immigration status, refused asylum seekers and those unlikely to get asylum? (2) how do migrants at risk of return navigate the coercion they are exposed to? Focusing on the entanglement of formal and informal practices, we develop a typology of involuntary returns, distinguishing among pushing, imposing, and incentivising policies and practices. This typology invites us to see nuances in the forced and voluntary return dichotomy because coercive practices of implementation are embedded in all these types, but the level of coercion varies in different situations. The paper also investigates how migrants exercise agency by contesting/resisting or complying with the return procedures. The article contributes to the scholarship on returns by unpacking formal and informal policy and practice dynamics and migrant agency. Empirically, the paper is based on observations and documentation of practices derived from field research and 97 interviews conducted with returnees from EU countries and Turkey to Albania, Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan between 2018 and 2023.

“We Go Away and Come Back Whenever We Want To”: Place, Time, and Return Migration in Dugi Otok, Croatia

Over the centuries, migration has significantly impacted Croatian islands and islanders. Taking a life course perspective and deploying semistructured interviews, this paper analyses time as a variable in contemporary return migration to Dugi Otok, a small island in Croatia. The focus is on the personal experiences of key events in the interviewees’ individual life histories that influenced their decisions to leave and to return. Comparing with results from an earlier study, the findings challenge traditional notions of a migration cycle in which an initial departure is ‘closed’ by a final, permanent return. A combination of temporally conditioned experiences and shifts in sociotechnical, economic, cultural, and political context mean that emigrants increasingly experience a sense of continuity between island place and immigration destination. Their returns to the island are more likely to be temporary or circular than to be permanent.

Singling Out the Pull Factors of Brain Gain in Pakistan

Brain Gain is the rise in the number of highly educated foreign nationals moving to a country where there are many opportunities to survive and get a job. This study has focused on the effect of pull factors on brain gain in Pakistan. We have used data from 1990 to 2023 in this analysis. The dependent variable is the brain gain. The Johanson cointegration test result showed that investment and the real effective exchange rate had inverse significant effects on brain gain. However, political stability and wage differences influenced brain gain positively in Pakistan. It is suggested that the Government should provide a more economic and stable political environment in the country to encourage skilled, highly skilled, and highly qualified labor to migrate back to Pakistan. The government may also give them infrastructure in the form of setting up skill development centers, giving financial support, providing them tax incentives, and forming a forum that will connect the return migrants with employers in order to get jobs according to their skills. Moreover, there is a serious need to provide more employment chances to people for high growth and development.

Pilgrimization of the return and re-acculturation of the returnee: A study of homecoming among Kashmiri Pandits

Return migration is a complex phenomenon of reassessment of one’s place in a supposedly familiar environment that migrants stand removed from often for extended periods of time. The process possibly runs deeper than the physical act of relocation either facilitated though institutionalized schemes or done at an individual level. Post return ‘re-acculturation’ into the host society and a subsequent ‘reacceptance’ by the host community are imperative for the return to take roots. Through an ethnographic study carried out in Kashmiri Valley, Jammu city and Delhi, I explore the particular case of ‘homecoming’ of (a section of) Kashmiri Pandit migrants who have returned to their ‘homeland’ after a claimed ‘exile’ of thirty plus years, following their conflict induced mass migration from Kashmir Valley in 1989 to 1990. The returnee expectations are heavily influenced by the celebratory connotations of a destined and permanent homecoming that have long been a part of the community discourse especially to foster a sense of identity and meaning in the dispersed community. It is challenged by the process of negotiation and adaptation that many migrants, especially the younger generations are faced with on return to their homeland. It often stands in contrast to the one they imagined based on vicarious narrations that tend to romanticize return as a pilgrimage to an unchanged, unaltered ‘center’ or a home immune to temporal dilutions. In doing so, the paper engages with the lacunas in the under- researched field of return migration, that tends to harbor on what counts as a permanent return.

Return Migration and Human Resources Development in Rural Areas: European Experience and Chinese Practice

Objective: The purpose of this study is to explore and propose strategies to promote the return of rural population and effective human resource development in China, and to learn from the successful experience of European countries, especially their education and training systems, social security mechanisms, characteristic industries and infrastructure construction, in order to facilitate the implementation of the rural revitalization strategy. Theoretical framework: Based on literature review, SWOT analysis, and international comparative research methods, this study builds a theoretical framework to identify the key elements of rural population return and human resource development, including vocational education and training, social security system, the cultivation of characteristic industries, the construction of infrastructure, etc., and reveals the similarities and differences between China and Europe in these fields through comparative analysis. Design/Methods/Approach: Adopt a combination of qualitative and quantitative research methods, firstly, through an extensive literature review to build a theoretical foundation; Second, data from official and international agencies are used for quantitative analysis, including processing and visualizing data on rural residents' incomes, investment in education, and population structure. Subsequently, SWOT analysis was used to assess the current state of human resource development in China's rural areas. Finally, the data obtained are exhaustively analysed, combined with European cases and specific strategic suggestions are proposed. Significance: The results of this study will provide a comprehensive strategic framework for human resource development in China's rural areas, emphasizing the implementation of multidimensional strategies such as optimizing investment in education, vocational training, and improving the social security system, which is of great practical importance to promote the healthy return of rural people and promote the sustainable development of the economy and economy. rural society. The proposed strategies can not only guide policy-making, but also provide a scientific basis for the development path of rural areas.

მიგრაციის სოციალურ-ეკონომიკური გავლენის ანალიზი

The expansion of the boundaries of globalization in itself leads to the facilitation of the movement of people from one country to another. As the reality of past decades has shown, this could be voluntary or involuntary movement, which is caused by the need to find jobs. Over the years, the migration of these flows of people between countries has acquired a large scale and has become a pressing challenge. Migration is among the most important global challenges, which is accompanied by not only social, unsustainable, and severe economic problems, but also creates many difficulties in many countries throughout the world. One of the major reasons for present-day human migrations is due to socio-economic problems. The analysis of the migration balance showed us that in the first decade of independence (1994-2002), the negative migration balance was particularly high (25-190 thousand people). In 2022, as a result of the migration changes caused by the Russian-Ukrainian war, the positive migration balance amounted to 56,509 people. The analysis of these migration flows in terms of age, in 2022, has shown that the number of immigrants in all age-groups was higher than the number of emigrants, which is also the result of the migration changes caused by the Russian-Ukrainian war. As expected, emigrants and immigrants (economically active population) between the ages of 16 and 64 have the highest specific share, which made up 84% and 86% of their total number, respectively. Given the increased opportunities for international mobility and the driving factors of migration, a reduction in emigration flows is unlikely to occur in the near future. In our opinion, it will be important to bring these flows into a safe and legal framework, as well as to strengthen relations with the large Georgian diaspora living abroad and to involve them in the socio-economic development of the country. It should be noted that today, remittances continue to play an important role in the lives of migrant families remaining in Georgia. As studies show, despite their relatively high amount, remittances have little impact on the country's economic development. Thus, it is important to establish a migration policy in Georgia that will contribute to the reduction of irrational, intensive emigration, the legalization of migration, the increase of the efficiency of migration, the return of migrants and their socio-economic reintegration in their homeland, the harmonization of the migration policy of Georgia with the measures taken by the countries of immigration, and the normalization of immigration processes.

Acoustic observations of walleye pollock (Gadus chalcogrammus) migration across the US-Russia boundary in the northwest Bering Sea

Abstract The degree to which walleye pollock (Gadus chalcogrammus, hereafter pollock) move between the US and Russian zones of the Bering Sea is a key source of uncertainty for fisheries management. To study transboundary migrations across the US–Russia maritime boundary and explore how climate variability might influence these migrations, four seafloor-mounted echosounder moorings were deployed from July 2019 to August 2020 in the northwestern Bering Sea. The observations indicated that a substantial amount of pollock moves between the US and Russia seasonally, with a period of southeast movement into the US as winter as sea ice forms and northwest movement into Russia in early summer as waters warm. Over the deployment period, 2.3-times more pollock backscatter moved into the US zone in fall and winter than exited the subsequent spring and summer. We hypothesize that the difference in the net movement between regions was driven by pollock moving farther into Russia during the historically warm conditions at the start of deployment period and reduced northwest return migration the following summer when temperatures were relatively cooler. This supports the hypothesis that temperature affects pollock distribution, and that continued warming will lead to a larger proportion of the stock in Russian waters.

The migratory impact of COVID‐19: The role of time and distances in the migration decisions of Hungarians during the COVID‐19 pandemic

AbstractDespite obvious consequences of pandemics on human mobility, attempts to quantify the migratory impact of COVID‐19 remained scarce, largely due to a general lack of data necessary for such assessments. The guiding principle of this paper is that common statistical definitions of migration—linked to usual residences—fail to capture a considerable share of the fast‐changing and diverse universe of cross‐border movements, which characterized the years of the pandemic. In this study, panels of short‐ and longer‐term movements were created, and hybrid (machine learning‐supported) interrupted time series analyses were performed on the basis of pre‐pandemic monthly migration flows data to quantify the impact of COVID‐19 on international migration. Social insurance data up to 2019 was used to estimate counterfactual emigration and return flows of Hungarians for 2020 and 2021 and compared with actual migration data a posteriori. Beyond the durations of staying abroad, we sought to look at how COVID‐related impacts on migration differ by destinations. In accordance with the results, 25% of expected emigrations in cumulative terms had not taken place due to the pandemic if only long‐term migrations are considered. This share is 22% when a more flexible conceptualization of geographic mobilities is applied. Behind this relatively small difference, however, there are large variations by destinations. Although similar cumulative impact cannot be detected in case of return migrations, the outbreak of the coronavirus resulted in an unprecedented wave of backwards mobilities, the impact of which however was fading away by the end of the 2‐years period.