#61. binaries of migration II. return vs stay

Is 'return' only a physical act, or does it also hold cognitive power? Can return ever be fully voluntary? In our new episode, we turn the telescope to another binary in our series: stay vs. return.

Migration has traditionally been treated as a "project" — shaped by economic incentives, political interests, and academic frameworks. We unpack the logics underlying this pragmatic understanding of migration and look at what staying and returning mean when migration is understood instead as a personal journey. This allows us to look at how "return aspirations" hold power over a migration experience, whether or not they're ever acted on, and how, increasingly, in Europe and across the globe, return is not a choice at all, but something imposed.

This is the second episode of our series on the binaries of migration. Let us know which other binaries you'd like us to deconstruct.

Sources mentioned:

Schiller, N. G., Basch, L., & Blanc, C. S. (1995). From immigrant to transmigrant: Theorizing transnational migration. Anthropological quarterly, 48-63.

Carling, J., & Pettersen, S. V. (2014). Return migration intentions in the integration–transnationalism matrix. International Migration, 52(6), 13-30.

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