Return migration as a win-win-win scenario? Visions of return among Senegalese migrants, the state of origin and receiving countries

Abstract

This article explores the topic of return migration as it is understood and practised by different actors who engage with this theme, albeit from different perspectives. Return migration is paraded in policy debates as a triple-win scenario, bringing advantages to receiving states, countries of origin and migrants. Yet this article reveals how return migration is understood differently by policymakers in Senegal and Europe and by the migrants targeted by their policies. Interpretations are based on conflicting underlying assumptions of what return is, its benefits and its relation to transnational movement. Inspired by the discursive paradigm in political studies, this article utilizes interpretive tools to examine the structures that support and give meaning to understandings of return among institutional actors and migrants. It concludes that new theorization is needed to grasp the full complexity of return migration as a phenomenon that is marked by different temporalities and aspirations.

Keywords:

• return migration
• transnationalism
• development
• policy analysis
• Senegal
• Europe

Acknowledgements

The author acknowledges the helpful comments of Francesco Ragazzi, Jørgen Carling and two anonymous reviewers.

Notes

1. Data were collected in different periods between 2004 and 2012. Data on return migration policies and programmes were collected in 2011 and 2012. These were integrated with data from previous ethnographic fieldwork on the mobility patterns of labour migrants and on post-return reintegration within temporary migration schemes (undertaken between 2004 and 2009). Follow-up interviews with some earlier migrant respondents ensured longitudinal insight into the outcomes of their return. Interviews were conducted either by the author or with the aid of research assistants.

2. The ‘Strategy Document for Growth and Poverty Reduction’ was adopted by the Republic of Senegal in 2006 and replaced an earlier document with a focus only on poverty reduction.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Giulia Sinatti

GIULIA SINATTI is Research Fellow at the International Institute of Social Studies, Erasmus University.