Beyond Departure: Return, Revisit, Reframe

Abstract (English)

Migration has long been viewed as a linear trajectory, often framed as a departure from one place to another. However, the complex, multifaceted, and perpetual nature of return challenges such simplistic narratives. Return in migration includes permanent and temporary resettlement in the place of origin – results of a conscious decision or not; return visits; and regular returns as part of a circular movement. However, the concept also embraces engagements and processes that do not involve the physical movement of migrants, only that of their resources, mental capacity, or emotions. This panel seeks to critically engage with the various forms of return in migration, emphasizing the need for a redefinition of how anthropologists conceptualize both the act of migration and its aftermath.
Return migration is increasingly recognized as encompassing multiple dimensions. These include not only the return of bodies, but also that of cultural practices, memories, and loyalties as well as the negotiation of relationships between the migrants and their home states and regimes, dissatisfaction with which is often at the center of the motivation to leave. Through the analysis of the evolving nature of these connections, the panel explores how migration is not a one-way journey but rather a cyclical, constantly evolving process, involving complex negotiations of home, belonging, and identity.
We consider temporal returns, which examine how migrants experience return in non-linear ways. For some, the return to their homeland is not a definitive conclusion but a revisiting of past selves, entangled with the reconstitution of family ties, social networks and obligations, and nostalgia. Spatial returns, on the other hand, reveal how places of origin are transformed through migrants' experiences abroad. These returns highlight the ways in which migration alters both the migrant and the home community, reconfiguring concepts of space, place, and belonging.
The panel also explores symbolic returns, which reflect the ways migrants continue to relate to their origins even in their absence. Through remittances, humanitarian aid, or voting in home elections, return takes on a more abstract form that transcends physical movement. Psychological returns are equally crucial in understanding the migrant experience as processes that may involve confronting past traumas or engaging in a search for closure, reconciliation, or redemption.
The epistemic shift proposed in this panel calls for a broader conceptualization of return that challenges conventional assumptions about migration as a process of departure and arrival. We suggest that return is not always a tangible, measurable event but rather a layered, ongoing experience that defies simplistic categorization. This perspective allows anthropologists to critically interrogate the power dynamics and individual agency involved in the migration experience, offering new insights into the fluid and transformative nature of mobility.