State-assisted Highly Skilled Return Programmes, National Identity and the Risk(s) of Homecoming: Israel and Germany Compared

Abstract

State-assisted return programmes (SARPs) have emerged as key components of diaspora mobilisation strategies in countries of origin. Especially in countries where the principle of jus sanguinis underpins citizenship regimes, these programmes have often been drawn from ostensibly national(istic) discourses in order to encourage the repatriation of (mostly highly skilled) citizens residing abroad. Drawing on interviews with public officials and migrants as well as content analysis of primary and secondary materials, this paper examines SARPs deployed by Israel and Germany. It argues that while the discourse and practice within which state programmes are embedded (re-)construct the nation in certain ways that are commensurate with perceived determinants of return, migrants have often rejected these formulations, underscoring instead a range of neglected personal and professional return-oriented risks. The paper's main contribution lies in better clarifying the links between highly skilled return migration policy, national identity and migration determinants and uncovers the diverging articulations of return used by state and migrants alike.

Keywords:

• Highly Skilled Migration
• Return Migration
• National Identity
• Israel
• Germany

Notes

[1] ‘The government approved today incentive-provision to returning residents’, 16 May 2010. Available at: [http://old.moia.gov.il/Moia_he/SpokesmanMessages/SpokesmanMessages_10/TheGovernmentApprovedTodayIncentivesForReturningResidents.htm].

[2] The mismatch between the declarative and practical ‘targets’ of Israeli programs has been discussed at length by Cohen (2009). We elaborate on this gap later in the paper.

[3] A survey conducted on behalf of the GAIN found that half of all returnees marked ‘social networks’ and ‘connections’ as key to their success in landing a job upon return, playing to the disadvantage of those who have been long absent or socio-professionally disconnected.

[4] Over the years, postgraduate students, postdocs, life scientists, athletes and physicians were among those provided with special incentives.

[5] Both interview samples constituted a roughly equal number of female and male emigrants. While the migratory experience differs between men and women (Mahler and Passar 2006), and these differences apply as well to the highly skilled (Kofman and Raghuram 2005), attitudes towards the SARPs did not show any meaningful gender-based differences.

[6] Data show that neither SARP nor, in the case of Israel, earlier initiatives had been particularly successful. Toren (1975) who evaluated Israel's first SARP (1968–70) concluded that it ‘did not achieve its designated purpose … [as] indicated by the fact that during the relevant years the volume of returnees did not exceed the expected, and that the declining trend related to the length of residence abroad has not been reversed’ (53–54). Though data on recent initiatives are incomplete, they, too, put a question mark on programmatic success. However, data from the Central Bureau of Statistics (2013) show that the annual number of Israeli citizens who returned after a stay of one or more years abroad has not changed significantly since the early 1990s regardless of whether it was a year during which SARP was in effect. Similarly, in Germany, statistical data reveal that 177,993 German citizens returned in 2004 (the year preceding the launch of GAIN) while only 128,051 did so in 2005. Despite some fluctuations in the time elapsed, the volume of returnees since its launch remains fairly stable, averaging 113,358 annually.

[7] The most notable example is that of former prime minister Rabin, who in 1976 referred to migrants as Nefolet Shel Nemoshot (‘the fallen among the weaklings’).

[8] The term denotes societal interests aimed at ‘developing a sense of local community and … participating simultaneously at the international context’ (Sachs 1999, 107; see also Delanty 2012). Juxtaposing ‘awareness of links with the wider world’ and a firm base of ‘local knowledge’ make cosmopolitan localism ‘a type of socio-political action through which place-based communities at various geographic scales compete for their “privileged” identities and resources in an era of global ties’ (Raddon 2002, 222).

[9] Refael Advanced Defence Systems Inc. is the state-owned conglomerate, developing and producing defence systems for the Israel Defense Forces.

[10] Proceedings of the Protocol of the Parliamentary Committee on Immigrant Absorption, November 10, 2010, p. 22.

[11] The right swing of the German population can also be observed by way of the growing popularity of centre-right party Alternative für Deutschland (Alternative for Germany), which has nationalistic overtones in its ideology.

[12] A habilitation resembles a second Ph.D. and remains a requirement to obtain tenure.