Return Migration, Reverse Culture Shock: A Critical Analysis of Their Patterns and Particularities Amongst Migrant Nigerian Elites

Abstract

Migration has remained a constant element of 21st-century changes (Appadurai, 1999; Gillespie, 2000; Georgiou, 2001). The prospects of a continuation are certain with growing gains in technologies of communication, transportation, and the increasing ease with which the world can integrate and function. The place of Nigerian migrants as reflected in some patterns and particularities (Georgiou, 2001; Adeniyi, 2008) of its elites reveals key characteristics useful for the understanding of discourses around migrants’ return and reverse culture shock (Naficy, 1999). While the coming home is often imagined, a few have proceeded to actualizations, and subsequently opening up new pedestals for the understanding of travelling and dwelling (Morley, 2000). This paper attempts a critical analysis of identifiable features and concludes that the revelations will ceaselessly grow in substance. The paper uses critical discourse analysis to evaluate the experiences of some elites, as rendered in formal and informal interviews, while also spicing it up with secondary data, obtained from media reports, and related literature. It eventually ended with a recommendation on the need for concerted development efforts to enable a realization of the likely higher quality lifestyle, which the elite might have left behind in the West.

Strangers in Their Homeland

“…Other factors are also found to contribute to the problematic experiences for returning visitors. First, returnees are already accustomed to the culture and environment of a new country and find the home country jarring (Adeniyi & Onyeukwu, 2021). Second, returning individuals are usually unprepared for the challenges they may experience in their home country (Mooradian, 2004).…”

Aged Return Migrants and the Challenges of Reintegration in Rural Nigeria: Implications for Social Work Practice

“…Besides, insecurity like the Boko Haram crises in the north-eastern part of Nigeria can cause disruption of life and have triggered the return of many migrants to their community of origin. Following the retirement and return, many migrants settle in their place of origin to spend their final days before dying (Adeniyi & Onyeukwu, 2021).…”