Factors Underlying Return Migration Decisions among Nigerian Victims of 2019 Xenophobic Violence in South Africa

Studies on xenophobic violence have mainly focused on their causes and effects, but have yet to probe how victimisation experiences of xenophobia trigger migration intentions and actual practices. In a balance of tales, I examine how families contributed to staying put/return decisions by Nigerian migrants in South Africa following the September 2019 xenophobic violence. The study asks: to what extent do family facilitate and/or contribute to the decision to return? And how do return strategies unveil the centrality of family in taking migration decisions? Data emerged through online interviews with Nigerian immigrants in South Africa who stayed put, and six family members in Nigeria were reached through snowball sampling. This was supplemented with secondary interviews conducted with Nigerian returnees in three National newspapers (The Punch, Vanguard, Nigerian Tribune and The Nation newspapers). Findings show the centrality of family in both migration intentions, staying-put, and the actual practices of Nigerian victims of xenophobia in South Africa.

Return Migration as an Asset Maximization Strategy in Retirement

Mexican immigrants make up an increasing proportion of the US population 65 and older. Estimating outcomes for this population is complicated by return migration. Due to data limitations, theoretical frameworks and empirical evidence fail to provide clear indication of the economic selection mechanism of return migration, especially at older ages making it difficult to estimate economic determinants of return. Here two waves of data from the US based Health and Retirement Study and the Mexican Health and Aging Study are combined to create a novel dataset that enables a comparison of assets at older ages for those who stay in the US, those who return before age 50 and those who return at 50 and older. Unadjusted results show no difference in total net wealth at older ages between the three groups, with higher business assets among returnees and higher concentration of wealth in home equity among stayers. With evidence of higher inequality among stayers, lower median wealth in Mexico, and asset advantages operating through citizenship, older age return can be interpreted as a means to acquire a higher standard of living in retirement for non-citizen immigrants. Comparing assets between 2000 and 2012 reveal the vulnerability of stayers during the US housing crisis. These findings are novel because they point to return migration as a retirement strategy and expose a source of vulnerability among those Mexican immigrants who remain in the US into older ages.

Challenges of Return Migration to the Republic of Moldova in the Context of International Migration Flow

Return migration is one of the types of contemporary migration, gaining momentum in many countries of the world as a result of frequent economic, political and social conjunctural changes that have influenced migration as a phenomenon. As part of the migration process, return migration has been less studied, given the low intensity of this form of migration and the difficulty of quantifying returned migrants. The return and reintegration of returned migrants, regardless of the reason or the mode of return, is a challenge both for returnees and for the authorities of the receiving countries and requires action plans, well thought-out strategies in order to manage this process effectively and to encourage new flows of returnees. Through this study, the authors wish to analyse the phenomenon of return migration through the prism of its determining factors, to follow the effectiveness of instruments that stimulate the return migration, to analyse the experience of European countries in managing this type of migration as best practices.The use of classical and contemporary human geography research methods will allow the quantitative and qualitative assessment of return migration, the study being based on a sociological survey conducted with returnees following a migration experience.

Disability and Older Age Return Migration: Evidence Against the Salmon Bias

Mexican immigrants make up an increasing proportion of the US population 65 and older. Whereas this population has among the lowest rates of disability at working ages, there is growing evidence of high rates of disability at older ages, findings which contradict what mechanisms of selection, namely the “salmon bias,” would predict. However, largely due to data limitations disability rates between those who stay in the US into older ages and those who return to Mexico are rarely compared. Here two waves of data from the US based Health and Retirement Study and the Mexican Health and Aging Study are combined to create a novel dataset that enables an interrogation of the widely held assumption of negative selection on health among return migrants. Investigating three measures of functional limitation and disability, results show higher prevalence of disability for stayers as compared to both younger and older returnees. These results are robust to controls for childhood background, adult socioeconomic status, and migration related variables and hold for those who immigrated during different immigration policy regimes. These findings are novel not only because they stand in opposition to previous assumptions about the direction of health selective return migration, but also because they mean that those remaining in the United States into older ages are among the most vulnerable.

Return migration from Venezuela to Europe: Back to the Roots?

The exodus from Venezuela increased in intensity until the Covid-19 pandemic. Arrivals in Europe were significantly lower than in Latin America, but also grew and displayed a shift in composition, including a decreasing percentage of people with European origins. This study investigates migration from Venezuela to Spain, Italy and Hungary, in the 21st century. It begins with a detailed theoretical framework and then examines the particular migratory flows. The analysis covers the major features of these migration moves, including antecedents, reasons and motivations, size, geographical distribution and indicators related to integration. Mixed methods are used, both qualitative and quantitative. Findings show that current emigration from Venezuela to Spain, Italy and Hungary can be considered as return migration because original flows existed in the 19th and 20th centuries, and actual counterflows not only incorporate descendants of immigrants but are also based on the existing migratory systems and networks between these countries.

The Weight of Migration: Reconsidering Health Selection and Return Migration among Mexicans

While migration plays a key role in shaping the health of Mexican migrants in the US and those in Mexico, contemporary Mexican migration trends may challenge the health selection and return migration hypotheses, two prevailing assumptions of how migration shapes health. Using data from the Mexican Family Life Survey (2002; 2005), we tested these two hypotheses by comparing the cardiometabolic health profiles of (1) Mexico–US future migrants and nonmigrants and (2) Mexico–US return migrants and nonmigrants. First, we found limited evidence for health selection: the cardiometabolic health of Mexico–US future migrants was not measurably better than the health of their compatriots who did not migrate, although migrants differed demographically from nonmigrants. However, return migrants had higher levels of adiposity compared to those who stayed in Mexico throughout their lives; time spent in the US was also associated with obesity and elevated waist circumference. Differences in physical activity and smoking behavior did not mediate these associations. Our findings suggest positive health selection might not drive the favorable health profiles among recent cohorts of Mexican immigrants in the US. However, the adverse health of return migrants with respect to that of nonmigrants underscores the importance of considering the lived experience of Mexican migrants in the US as an important determinant of their health.