Questioning the Notion of Return Migration in the Context of Globalization

The deep and frequent disagreements in the study of migration reflect the difficulties to apprehend the nature and implications of an intrinsically social phenomenon. Being a prominent manifestation of human agency, involving individual decisions as much as broader ‘doing together’, migration continuously changes its content and meanings. Often the study of migration has lent itself to uncountable descriptive, explicative and predictive attempts, many of which have been unfortunate, for often they result in simplifications that not necessarily acknowledge their interpretive implications. An important derivation of this problem is the influential notion of ‘‘return migration’’, introduced in the last half of the past century within the field of migration, and widely overstated in current academic and policy work. Although many academic studies about the demographic and social characteristics of ‘‘returnee’s’, as well as their impact on development have been produced, few can overcome a thoughtful scrutiny for they often result in inadequate generalizations. This research paper is undertakes a deep examination of the current use of notion of ‘‘return migration’’ in the light of Mexico-USA migration and some of the most influential migration disciplinary approaches.