W artykule tym autorzy analizują empiryczne determinanty decyzji emigrantów zarobkowych dotyczących powrotu do kraju oraz przesyłanych przez nich przekazów pieniężnych z perspektywy macierzystego regionu. Inaczej niż w poprzednich tego typu badaniach autorzy przebadali bezpośrednio osoby, które rzeczywiście powróciły do kraju, a nie te, które deklarują jedynie chęć powrotu, jak to było we wcześniejszych badaniach. Na podstawie badania ankietowego obejmującego dużą i reprezentatywną grupę gospodarstw domowych z województwa śląskiego (okręgu położonego w Polsce południowej) autorzy identyfikują najważniejsze czynniki wpływające na indywidualne decyzje emigrantów o powrocie do kraju i na ich zachowania w zakresie przesyłanych do kraju przekazów pieniężnych. Następnie badają zależność pomiędzy decyzją o powrocie a przekazami pieniężnymi do kraju. Wyniki badania pokazują, że osoby, które powracają do kraju, przesyłają do domu więcej pieniędzy niż osoby pozostające za granicą w chwili przeprowadzania ankiety. Wyniki pokazują też, że osoby z wyższym wykształceniem przesyłają do kraju mniej pieniędzy niż osoby z wykształceniem podstawowym i średnim.
EN
In this paper, the authors analyze empirically the determinants of return migration and the linkage between return migration and remittance behavior from the perspective of migrant source region. The study brings a new perspective to this topic, as the authors have directly identified return migrants and do not rely on the declared intentions to return, as in the previous studies. Using a large representative household survey from Silesian voivodeship (a province in southern Poland), the authors identify the most important factors that affect the individual’s decision to return to the home region. Then they inspect the relationship between the return decision and remittance behavior. The results of the study show that return migrants are more prone to remit and send more funds than those migrants who remained abroad at the moment of the survey. The findings demonstrate also that tertiary educated migrants are less likely to transfer financial assets than other migrants.
RU
В статье авторы анализируют эмпирические детерминанты, влияющие на решения трудовых эмигрантов, касающихся возвращения на родину и передаваемых ими денежных трансфертов, с точки зрения их родного региона. Иначе, чем в предыдущих такого типа исследованиях, авторы работали с людьми, которые действительно вернулись на родину, а не с теми, которые только заявляют о желании вернуться, как это было в более ранних исследованиях. На основе анкетного исследования, охватывающего большую и представительную группу домашних хозяйств из силезского воеводства (региона расположенного на юге Польши), авторы выявили самые важные факторы, влияющие на индивидуальные решения эмигрантов относительно возвращения на родину и на их поведение касательно передаваемых на родину денежных трансфертов. Затем авторы исследуют зависимость между решением вернуться на родину и денежными трансфертами. Исследования показывают, что люди, которые решили вернуться, посылают домой больше денег, чем те, которые решили остаться за рубежом. Результаты показывают также, что люди с высшим образованием передают на родину меньше денег, чем люди с неполным средним и средним образованием.
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.
The article introduces the theoretical approach to analysing return migration policy and discusses the main dilemmas of the state related to political reaction to returns of its nationals. The concept of reactive and active policy is presented, the first aiming at minimising the negative effects of returns, while the second focused on stimulating the return processes. The main drivers and determinants of the return policy effectiveness as well as the types, scope and scale of state activities addressed to returnees are also discussed in the article. The practice of state policy implementation is illustrated with the example of the particular case of Poland as a country which faced mass emigration after accession to the European Union and return migration in the recent years. The review of conceptual documents, the rationale for the state policy and the variety of activities implemented by the Polish government and other institutions are presented.
The article discusses the notion of return migration with regard to its permanency and temporariness. In reference to selective patterns of return migration, factors conducive to permanent returns and to re-emigration, i.e. subsequent migration after the return, are examined with the use of a logistic regression model. Analyses demonstrated in the article are devoted to return migration to Poland in 1989-2002 and based on the 2002 Polish census data. The obtained results confirm earlier findings on the major role of the level of human capital and family attachments in shaping the nature of the return waves. It was revealed that return migrants who decided on a longer stay in Poland were more often living in Polish urban areas, and had higher human capital and stronger family attachments to Poland, when compared to re-emigrants. It was also observed that return migrants possessing dual nationality were the most likely to engage in re-emigration, while descendants of Polish emigrants tended to settle in Poland on a more permanent basis.
Globalisation is a ubiquitous influence in rural Europe, offering both opportunities and challenges. The liberalisation of travel restrictions, in addition to the growth and development of transport and global communication networks, have contributed to an international mobility that promotes patterns of migration, return migration and repeat emigration from and to rural regions. Return migration in particular represents a stimulating field of research, as thought-provoking as it is diverse. In some regions, migrants return to their native country to play a pivotal role in the economic, social, and cultural vibrancy of a local rural community, while in others, migrants find themselves excluded and isolated. Investigating this diversity of experience, this paper presents analysis of findings from research carried out as part of the FP7 DERREG1 project. Thirty-six biographies of return migrants (from the west of Ireland and Alytus County, Lithuania) were generated, allowing an understanding of how various life trajectories develop, reasons behind decisions, feelings regarding relocation and reintegration, and the experience of returning to a rural location. Drawing on transnationalism and social network theory, this paper reveals the complexity of contemporary return migration experiences and the similarities and diversities that exist between Western and Eastern Europe. Key issues to emerge include the context dependency of return migrant behaviour and their further life choices, integration, and the shift in migrants’ value priority scale from economic to social values.
The paper contains the analysis of selectivity of emigration and return migration to Poland in years 2004-2008. By using Migration Selectivity Index with comparable data (Labour Force Survey) we were able to confirm the hypothesis of ‘washing-out’ of selected categories of Polish population: men, people with post-secondary, secondary and vocational level of education, inhabitants of rural areas and those who live in agricultural households. We made an attempt to estimate the scale of the phenomenon and described its demographic consequences. Our analysis corresponds with the ‘crowding out’ hypothesis (Okólski 2011, 2012; cf. Grabowska-Lusińska, Okólski 2009; Anacka, Okólski 2010) stating that the post-accession emigration from Poland gave a chance to an economically ‘redundant’ labour force to move to regions and economic sectors with high demand for labour.
The aim of this paper is to examine individual social remittances in the sphere of employment, against the background of the changing employment patterns and flexibilisation of work. Through an analysis of life stories of post-accession return migrants from the UK to Poland, it investigates the way in which returnees’ work experience gathered abroad impacts on their perception of employment standards in general. The revealed differences are understood as ‘potential social remittances’, i.e. the discrepancies acknowledged by returnees between the realities experienced during emigration and after their return (in this case to Poland). It is argued that the actualisation of the ‘potential social remittances’ depends on return migrants’ coping strategies as well as on the institutional and structural settings in returnees’ home country. The four main distinguished strategies are: re-emigration, activism, adaptation and entrepreneurship.
This article investigates the post-return experiences of highly skilled Belarusian professionals. I concentrate on the socio-cultural aspects of highly skilled migration and view returnees as carriers of new experiences, ideas, and practices by studying the ways in which they apply various socio-cultural remittances to the different spheres of their lives. In particular, I argue that the formation and transmission of socio-cultural remittances are strongly heterogeneous and selective processes, which manifest themselves to varying degrees not only in different people, but also in different aspects of people’s lives. The analysis of several socio-cultural remittances in private and public spheres shows that in some cases the socio-cultural remittances display strong gender differences. Moreover, the highly skilled returnees appear to be proactive remitters: some of them re-interpret and transform the socio-cultural remittances before transmitting them. The research draws on the analysis of 43 in-depth interviews with highly skilled professionals who returned to Belarus after long periods of time spent abroad.
This paper analyses Poles’ return from emigration from an empirical perspective. It also discusses the difficulties involved in research on return migrants. Firstly, there is no single definition of a return migrant which would be binding for all countries; secondly, many countries do not keep statistics on returnees. Hence, research on return migration concentrates on purposive samples which may indicate certain types of phenomena, strategies and problems within the analysed group, but do not allow generalization. The paper presents the results of a quantitative survey carried out in five cities, viz. Warsaw, Poznań, Gdańsk, Rzeszów and Katowice, on a group of 200 return migrants (40 in each of the above locations). The survey was conducted in Spring 2010. The respondents were selected using snowball sampling.
Return migration has probably been granted the lowest attention in the field of family language policy (FLP). The current paper seeks to address this gap in the research and explores the dynamics of FLP of a Polish family in the context of their temporary migration to Germany and return migration to Poland. The authors investigate how mobility affects FLP, especially towards L1 (Polish) and L2 (German) in the context of migration and return migration. The study takes a qualitative, interview-based study design, supported by the language portrait technique. An analysis of the interview data has evidenced the parents’ strong support for the maintenance and development of L1 throughout the whole process of migration and return migration and the lack of it in the case of L2 after the return to Poland. The results have also evidenced that individuals in a family, including children, have significant autonomy and agency and can shape their independ- ent FLPs, which are aligned neither with their parents nor siblings.
The area of return migration is attracting considerable interest, not least because of the surge in returns due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The characteristics of recent returnees and their motivations have yet to be established. This paper examines the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on return migration to the Czech Republic and offers one of the first investigations into the realities of return in this particular case. The present study is expected to contribute to our understanding of the role of transnationalism and migration networks in return migration. We also want to highlight the uneasiness between the voluntary/forced migration dichotomy when it comes to discussing recent events. Feelings of being stranded and of helplessness were also common for many (voluntary) returnees at some point during their pre-return phase. Data were collected during the first half of 2021 and the responses were gathered through semi-structured interviews. The results broaden our understanding of return migration in this specific case and highlight the importance of taking the multiplicity of returnee characteristics into account.
The aim of the paper is to describe the main patterns and challenges of Ukrainian migration to Greece with reference to the consequences of the recent economic and social crisis in the host country on the migrants’ lives. Specifically, the paper discusses the impact of the legal framework related to migration in four different periods. Historically, Greece was one of the first destinations attracting Ukrainian migrants, but the migration flows have strongly decreased during the last years and a tendency for return migration has emerged. Among the key features is the fact that the migrant’s experience is deeply influenced and shaped by Greece’s policy response to migration. The paper will therefore specifically examine the impact of the legislative measures on the mobility of the migrants.
Transnationalism and diaspora are concepts that are often intertwined but nonetheless differ. This article examines the link between transnationalism and integration processes among return migrants from the Armenian diaspora and examines the role social networks play in integration in Armenia. Returnees to Armenia can be divided into those who have returned from the Armenian diaspora (second and subsequent generations of migrants) and those who emigrated from Armenia and decided to return. This is reflected in the literature as a distinction between the 'old' and the 'new' Armenian diaspora, the latter having emerged in the 1990s. Before returning, both groups maintained ties with people in Armenia and may differ only by the extent and frequency of use of these ties. These ties can then accompany them when they return to Armenia and help them to (re-)integrate. The integration of returnees has its own specifics, compared to the integration of migrants, and may not be as simple as it might seem. This article focuses on the transnational ties of 23 migrants of Armenian descent who returned to Armenia after a long time abroad and draws on original research on return migration in Armenia conducted in 2016 and 2018. Semi-structured interviews with returnees revealed that their participation in the labour market is instrumental to their integration into mainstream society, and their work may involve transnational activities. The article shows the different opportunities that weak and strong ties provide returnees and that may facilitate their integration. Weak ties on a local level are crucial for returnees to be able to reintegrate and fully participate in life in Armenia. The article aims to understand the return strategy as one of the migration options that may or may not be permanent. A return may be followed by re-migration, under certain conditions and if obstacles to sustainable reintegration, and the article also explores the motivations for re-migration.
The subject of this article is the fate of the Greek political refugees – specifically personsforcibly resettled in Poland and other countries of the Soviet Bloc, evacuated from territoriesengrossed in the Civil War of 1946-1949. After a long period in exile, some returned to theirhome country and began a new life, struggling with economic, familial, social, linguistic and cultural problems. The history of the Greek refugees and their re-immigration illustrates the irreversibility and irreparability of the social and psychological damage done by forcedmigration. Returns to the homeland did not reinstate balance, and did not ease the dilemmasinitiated by the first resettlement. History is stuck in the memories as well as the everyday lives of the return migrants and their social milieus; this creates divides, mutual strangeness, and social tensions. Compulsory movement of populations – leading to the severance of connections with one’s fatherland, hometown, mother tongue, and home culture – causes subsequent conflicts and identity problems which continue to haunt those who returned to their birthplace.
Post-WWII geopolitical changes in Indochina and Central & Eastern Europe drastically altered the international relationships of Czechoslovakia. Viet-nam became one of its partners. After the 1954 defeat of the French, the first Northern Vietnamese immigrants came to Czechoslovakia. However, after the Velvet Revolution of 1989 political agreements on cultural cooperation ended, and a return migration began. Nevertheless, the reconsolidation of democracy in the successor states of Czechoslovakia did not bring to an end the long established connection, and spontaneous individual migration started. Since then thousands of persons have come, and the Czech Republic remains one of the most desirable destinations for Vietnamese migrants. This article is the result of a qualitative survey conducted among pre-1989 returnees that was carried out in Vietnam from July 2010 to February 2011. The main task of the study is to frame the migration in a broader historical and political context, and show how the consequences and organized features of pre-1989 migration have shaped the perception of Czecho-slovakia and the returnees’ relationship with it.
The present text maps the actual situation of the participants of the controlled resettlement from the former Soviet Union to the Czech Republic in the years 1992–1993. Better to say, it maps the situation of a group of these settlers who at present live in the village Milovice, in the revitalized former military domain in the south-eastern part of the region Střední Čechy (Central Bohemia). The aim of the research was to analyze how the settlers perceive their reception from part of the majorite society, to study their adaptive strategies and to find out if the resettlement to the Czech Republic and the choice of the mentioned locality fulfilled their wishes and to what degree. The final part of the article summarizes what the settlers see as positive and what as negative aspects of the resettlement. The text is based on repeated directed interviews and observations realized in Milovice in the years 2008–2009.
Ethnic return migration is a widespread strategy for migrants from economically disadvantaged countries. This article is about those ethnic return migrants who might successfully migrate thanks to their ancestors; their decision is based upon economic, pragmatic or rationalistic incentives aside from their diasporic feeling of belonging. Although this phenomenon has already been studied, scholars still mostly refer only to the benefits proposed by immigration policy as a key to understanding it. The impact of policy in the country of emigration on ethnic return migration is understudied. This article fills this gap. I found that when the Soviet Union introduced an attractive policy for Ukrainians/Russians in terms of study or work opportunities and the inhabitants in the Ukrainian Soviet Republic were quick to proclaim themselves as Ukrainians or Russians, the dissolution of the Soviet Union quickly changed this motivation. Ukrainians with Czech ancestors started to aim at obtaining official status as Czech members of the diaspora because of the benefits proposed by the Czech government (mainly permanent residency). However, it is difficult to prove the required link to one’s Czech ancestors due to Soviet-era documents in which the column with the Czech nationality of people’s ancestors is often missing. These observations lead to the conclusion that an attractive immigration policy aimed at the diaspora should not be treated as the only comprehensive explanation for ethnic return migration. Ethnic policy in the country of emigration also shapes this kind of migration and – in this concrete case – could even discourage ethnic return migrants.
Educating for a future that assumes students will be educated in the country where they were born or that they will remain in the country where they are currently in school does not reflect the reality of the movement of people in an age of globalization. The research presented here examines the case of children and youth in Mexican public schools who have had some or all of their education in the United States, transnational students (TS) with a particular focus on their linguistic situation. Results suggest that TS struggle with the linguistic transition from Spanish as language of the home to Spanish as the language of education. The paper concludes with suggestions for future research and application to other contexts.