Return migration as a ‘family project’: exploring the relationship between family life and the readjustment experiences of highly skilled Austrians

ABSTRACT

Most research studies on return migration analyse remigration and reintegration as individual projects, without considering the interconnectedness of remigrants with their family members. This article addresses this research gap and seeks to add to our understanding of the role which the family plays in shaping reintegration outcomes through a qualitative analysis of the experiences of highly skilled Austrians who returned, with their co- or inter-ethnic family members, in the last 10 years. Results show that the relationship between family and reintegration is complex. Core family members may act both as constraints and as enablers of readjustment. Partners and children ease reintegration by providing enthusiasm, motivation and emotional support. At the same time, family members may also complicate the reintegration process by increasing the amount of administrative work to be done in order to re-organise family life or by triggering feelings of alienation, when family members face (re)-integration challenges. The reintegration process was also found to have a significant impact on highly skilled returnees’ family life. The problem-solving strategies which returnees develop during their process of reintegration either impede the formation of new families, impact on the structure of existing families or change the division of family work in the household.

KEYWORDS:

• Return migration
• readjustment
• highly skilled migration
• family migration
• Austria

Acknowledgements

I wish to thank Thilo Lang, Robert Nadler and the anonymous JEMS referees for their valuable comments and suggestions, Sylvia Trnka for the translation of the quotations, Jenny Money for English Proofreading and the Centre for Social Innovation (ZSI) for the option of taking an educational leave to write this article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. Erwin Schrödinger Database of the FWF (Austrian Science Fund), Database of the OeAD-GmbH (Austrian agency for international mobility and cooperation in education, science and research), Brainpower Austria Database of the BMViT (Austrian Ministry for Transport, Innovation and Technology), expatriate lists of several Austrian clubs and the Austrian Foreign Office.

2. Whether or not people are allowed to work in Austria depends on their nationality, the kind of work they hope to undertake and – for third-country nationals (TCNs) –the kind of residence permit they have. To get a residence permit and therefore a work permit, TCNs generally have to submit – among others – the following documents:

• proof of health/travel/accident insurance (original letter from insurance company confirming coverage in Austria);

• proof of sufficient financial means (e.g. scholarship, letter confirming grants, bank statements for the previous two months, other proof of income);

• proof of accommodation in Austria (e.g. lease contract, ownership papers);

• a statement of financial liability; and

• proof of basic language proficiency in German (level A1).

For more-detailed information, please see: http://www.austria.org/residence-permit

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Leibniz-Institut für Länderkunde (IfL) Leipzig and the Arbeiterkammer Vienna through their scholarship programmes.