Return Migration and Psychosocial Wellbeing: Discourses, Policy-Making and Outcomes for Migrants and their Families (Routledge Research in Race and Ethnicity)

Return migration is a topic of growing interest among academics and policy makers. Nonetheless, issues of psychosocial wellbeing are rarely discussed in its context. Return Migration and Psychosocial Wellbeing problematises the widely-held assumption that return to the country of origin, especially in the context of voluntary migrations, is a psychologically safe process. By exploding the forced-voluntary dichotomy, it analyses the continuum of experiences of return and the effect of time, the factors that affect the return process and associated mobilities, and their multiple links with returned migrants' wellbeing or psychosocial issues. Drawing research encompassing four different continents – Europe, North America, Africa and Asia – to offer a blend of studies, this timely volume contrasts with previous research which is heavily informed by clinical approaches and concepts, as the contributions in this book come from various disciplinary approaches such as sociology, geography, psychology, politics and anthropology. Indeed, this title will appeal to academics, NGOs and policy-makers working on migration and psychosocial wellbeing; and undergraduate and postgraduate students who are interested in the fields of migration, social policy, ethnicity studies, health studies, human geography, sociology and anthropology. Cover Half Title Title Page Copyright Page Table of Contents List of contributors Preface and acknowledgements 1 Introduction: the interface between return migration and psychosocial wellbeing Part I The forced–voluntary continuum in return migration 2 Return to wellbeing? Irregular migrants and assisted return in Norway 3 Forced to return? Agency and the role of post-return mobility for psychosocial wellbeing among returnees to Afghanistan, Pakistan and Poland 4 Between ‘voluntary’ return programs and soft deportation: sending vulnerable migrants in Spain back ‘home’ Part II Ancestral returns, adaptation and re-migration 5 Roots migration to the ancestral homeland and psychosocial wellbeing: young Polish diasporic students 6 ‘This country plays tricks on you’: Portuguese migrant descendant returnees narrate economic crisis-influenced ‘returns’ 7 ‘Invisible’ returns of Bosnian refugees and their psychosocial wellbeing Part III Asylum systems, assisted returns and post-return mobilities 8 ‘Burning without fire’ in Sweden: the paradox of the state’s attempt to safeguard deportees’ psychosocial wellbeing 9 The return of refugees from Kenya to Somalia: gender and psychosocial wellbeing 10 Time heals? A multi-sited, longitudinal case study on the lived experiences of returnees in Armenia Part IV Life course, family and health 11 The need to belong: Latvian youth returns as dialogic work 12 Migration and return migration in later life to Albania: the pendulum between subjective wellbeing and place 13 To stay or to go? The motivations and experiences of older British returnees from Spain 14 ‘Is this really where home is?’ Experiences of home in a revisited homeland among ageing Azorean returnees 15 Conclusions: exploring the multiple complexities of the return migration–psychosocial wellbeing nexus Index Edited By Zana Vathi And Russell King. Includes Bibliographical References And Index.