Transnational Return and Social Change

New ways to understand the dynamics of return migration.

Return has long been considered the end of a migration cycle. Today, returnees' continued transnational ties, practices and resources have become increasingly visible. 'Transnational Return and Social Change' pays tribute to the meso-level impacts that follow the practices and resources migrant returnees mobilise across borders, influencing communities, organisations, social networks and groups.

'In advancing research on the transnational implications of return migration, Anghel, Fauser and Boccagni have assembled an excellent collection of richly detailed empirical studies framed by their insightful introductory and concluding chapters. The result constitutes a major contribution to a critical, grounded, relational approach to the quotidian changes brought about by return, including the potential for generating new transnational engagements. This is essential reading for migration scholars.' — Peter Kivisto, Richard A. Swanson Chair of Social Thought, Augustana College, USA

'For many migrants, mobility is temporary. They return to the places they have left. Sometimes they return for a while, sometimes forever. Their return has an impact at least as important as their previous exit. Returning migrants have often been stigmatized as "failed" immigrants. Others have exalted them as standard-bearers of development and modernity. Both accounts fail to grasp the complex role played by returnees in migration systems. In this path-breaking book, the authors provide a new – and much-needed – way to understand a long neglected phenomenon. Definitely a book worth reading.' — Giuseppe Sciortino, Professor, Department of Sociology and Social Research, University of Trento, Italy

'This well-written book makes an outstanding contribution to scholarship about return migration and transnational practices and will certainly turn into an invaluable reference for anyone interested in understanding the complex link between migration and societal changes and transformations.' — Claudia Finotelli, Senior Lecturer, Department of Applied Sociology, Faculty of Political Science and Sociology, Complutense University of Madrid, Spain

'The volume grasps that migrants leave, enter, re-enter and return to societies in flux which also undergo constant meso and micro social changes.' — Izabela Grabowska, Professor, SWPS University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Poland