Original scientific paper
Sociological Approach in the Research of Processes of Returning Migrations
Krešimir PERAČKOVIĆ
Abstract
In this work the author first discusses the possibility of an
appropriate sociological theoretical concept for defining the
term returning migration, starting from the model of the
collective-identification field of migrants as a social group,
conceptualised by S. Me`nari}. The theory of B. I. Reynes
which integrates four approaches to the research of returning
migrations is also presented: the theory of unfulfilled goals,
the theory of circular migrations, the theory of planned
earnings and the theory of social network, which proved
appropriate in operationalising the indicators for researching
returning migrations. The goal was to determine whether
returned migrants were a social group in the sociological
sense and which characteristics placed them in the same
collective-identification field. The initial hypothesis was that
returning migrations include the entirety of the migrant's
experience: the experience of migration, the experience of
adjustment to the new environment by means of the
processes of integration (acculturation and assimilation) and
the experience of returning and adjusting to the "old" environment, i.e. the experience of reintegration into the
country of origin, which makes the returned migrants or
returnees a social group with similar characteristics and
experiences. The results of research show that returnees,
regardless of which country they return from, which
generation they belong to, regardless of the length of time
they spent in emigration or which social class they belong to
as well as the extent they have been assimilated to, with their
work experience and education have been more successfully
professionally socialised and economically adapted to life in
a market economy. This experience is perhaps the most
important socio-cultural characteristic that has influenced
their different outlook on the reconstruction of capitalism in
Croatia, which indeed makes them a group of the same
social-identification field.
Keywords
migrations; sociology of migration; recurrent; returning migrations; emigrants; returnees
Hrčak ID:
18283
URI
Publication date:
30.6.2006.
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