To Stay or Return? Explaining Return Intentions of Central and Eastern European Labour Migrants

• Authors: Snel Erik , Faber Marije , Engbersen Godfried
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

This paper describes and tries to explain return intentions of Polish, Romanian and Bulgarian labour migrants in the Netherlands. Previous research has often emphasised the temporary or ‘liquid’ character of Central and Eastern European labour migration. We find that a substantial number of labour migrants intend to stay in the Netherlands for many years, and sometimes forever. Data from a survey of Central and Eastern European (CEE) labour migrants (Poles, Romanians, Bulgarians) in the Netherlands (N = 654), is used to test three hypotheses about return intentions. Economic success or failure is not found to be related to the return intentions of migrants. Apparently, some migrants return after being successful in migration, whereas others return after having failed. Migrants with strong links with Dutch society have less strong return intentions, whereas migrants with strong transnational ties intend to return sooner.

Keywords

EN

return migration; labour migrants; Central and Eastern Europe; the Netherlands

• Publisher: Ośrodek Badań nad Migracjami Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego oraz Polska Akademia Nauk
• Journal: Central and Eastern European Migration Review
• Year: 2015
• Volume: 4
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 5-24

Contributors

author

Snel Erik

author

Faber Marije

author

Engbersen Godfried

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