‘Mobile transmigrants’ or ‘unsettled returnees’? myth of return and permanent resettlement among Senegalese migrants

Abstract

The importance gained by transnationalism and growing attention for the development potential of migration have recently brought forward a new concern for the issue of return migration. Within this framework, return to the home country is understood as having an increasingly less permanent nature. Transnational movement itself is conceived as a form of return, and the debate on the migration-development nexus considers circulation to foster development as it enhances the fl ow of fi nancial, social, and cultural capital to countries of origin. Seldom, however, has research taken into account the view of migrants themselves. What are their perceptions of transnationalism and return?Based on ethnographic research conducted among Senegalese migrants in the home country and in Italy, this paper demonstrates the existence, the logics, and functioning of a transmigrant movement made of people who are regular 'comers and goers' between Africa and Europe. I show, however, that in the view of these largely unskilled migrants, successful return is still associated with permanent return. This desire for defi nitive resettlement in the home society must nonetheless be compromised with aspirations for economic advancement and family obligations. Continually delayed, permanent return acquires the status of a myth.

Transnational return? On the interrelation of family, remigration, and transnationality – An introduction

“…It mainly focused on the political reintegration and "sustainable return" of highly skilled migrants (Baraulina & Kreienbrink, 2013;Kilbride, 2014) as well as on the "myth of return" (Sinatti, 2010). In transnational studies, return migration has been discussed in recent years with a focus on transnational practices, belongings, and diverse mobility patterns (Erdal & Oeppen, 2013;Jeffery & Murison, 2011), and a new approach to analyze the interconnectedness between return migration and transnationalism has emerged (Carling & Erdal, 2014;Yeoh, Charney, & Kiong, 2003).…”

Transnational Involvement: Reading Quantitative Studies in Light of Qualitative Data

“…Often, early findings were presented in a celebratory way as liberating and empowering. Later on, more somber analyses discussed "forced transnationalism" when migrants' neither-here-northere lives represented a state of limbo [34], or how migrants talked of transmigrancy as "a tiring alternation of presences and absences, and of re-emigration as a failure of the return project" [35]. The comparatively privileged access to migrants enjoyed by qualitative researchers allows them to explore such questions of socially embedded meaning.…”

Formal Education as a Facilitator of Migration and Integration: A Case Study of Nigerian University Graduates

“…With the introduction of a West African model depicting the migration process from the migrants' perspective, I incorporated the findings of my interviews and my web-survey into a more abstract model that is supported by other case studies (e.g., Ammassari, 2004;Efionayi & Piguet, 2011;Hunter, 2011;Sinatti, 2011;Tiemoko, 2004). It depicts the migration process, from the migrants' images of destination countries and articulated reasons, to the migration facilitators, the accomplishment of migration, the integration process, and the possible intention of returning.…”

“…Social and economic integration is a strategy as well as an aim that causes a shift in the individual's self-identity and understanding of home. The desire for a permanent return to the source country may be continually articulated but postponement and unplanned, yet fostered, integration in the host society (see also Sinatti, 2011) often results in this goal being more of a myth than a reality. Both pathways-return and integration-are maintained in furthering self-employment possibilities related to typical migrant entrepreneurship in the country of destination.…”