Return Retirement Migration Flow from EU Countries to Northeast Serbia

The ongoing emigration from underdeveloped countries of South and East Europe started in the 1960s and 1970s. The expected significant return from temporary work abroad has not happened, not even with the first generation of migrants, who receive retirement pensions. Although the landscape of emigration areas clearly indicates that significant personal capital has been invested into increasing the standard of living in the region of origin, permanent reverse migrations has not reached the expected intensity. Instead of permanent returns, temporary migrations occur during longer or shorter holidays, while demographic decline and aging populations characterise emigration areas.

This paper presents results of empirical research conducted with 340 retirees from northeast Serbia. Very important factors in retirees’ decisions to return to their homeland or stay in their host country include differences in the quality of health and elderly care. A comprehensive strategy for stimulating return migration is a necessary condition for increasing foreign remittances to the home country.

Return Migration, Human Capital Formation and Labour Market Performance upon Return: The Albanian case. Occupational Dynamics of Return Migrants: The Albanian case

This study primarily seeks to analyse the potential benefits of return migration and performance in the labour market upon return. This issue has a special importance in view of the European Union requirements for the Albanian government to set up a national plan on reintegrating the returnees. The project aims to explore in more detail the impact of the different types of temporary migration on human capital formation and labour-market outcomes for return migrants. For this purpose, the project uses the Living Standard Measurement Survey in Albania (LSMS) 2005-2008, which provides comprehensive information about migrants including the returnees’ behaviour while abroad and upon return. The project’s econometrical approach allows simultaneously estimation of the equation of the migration choice (permanent or temporary return intentions) and the equation of labour market performance (upgrading in terms of occupational skill level). The research finds that medium-skilled workers improve their occupational choice, but such opportunity is less likely to occur for the highly educated, unless the public or governmental sector employs the returnee.

Bosnian Austrians: Accidental Migrants in Trans-Local and Cyber Spaces

This paper explores the realities of three groups of Bosnian immigrants in Austria whose migration, at least initially, started as a forced displacement during the 1990s. It describes how their social networks, level of education, professional skills, life experiences and embodied bi-culturalism are utilised in strengthening social cohesion and intergenerational solidarity in relation to Austria and to Bosnia-Herzegovina. The paper attempts to challenge the established methodological and theoretical orthodoxies in migration studies and to deconstruct the myth about refugees as a ‘societal burden’ subject to charity and lacking human and social capital. It argues that any strict division between different migration categories (like economic migration, skilled migration, family reunion, temporary and forced migration) and paradigms (like trans-nationalism or the brain-drain versus brain-gain concept) will miss addressing the multiplicity of ever-changing relationships, meanings and opportunities likely created by any migration.

It is reductionist to refer to some standardised ‘refugee pattern’; people who experience forced displacement, like any other migrant groups, do not remain in a stage of permanent liminality. Their ‘migration’ into new identities, even if these identities are only transitory – from refugees to migrants to citizens of new countries or to returnees – is often founded on the remnants of their earlier place-based identities and locally embedded social networks. Such communities are not only socially (re-)constructed at the points of migration, but also increasingly (re)imagined and (re)imaged beyond real space, in the realm of cyber space.

A Two-Way Ticket: Return Migration of Tertiary (Post) Graduates as a Potential Channel of the Brain-Gain Process in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Higher education’s international dimension has emphasised circulation of scientists, professionals and scholars around the globe. This process has encouragingly positive results, but much confusion exists about return migration of highly educated persons who acquired advanced competences overseas. When compared with strong evidence of the brain-drain phenomenon, the return process simply became marginalised. Therefore, this study explains characteristics of the return migration as a potential channel of the brain-gain process with a focus on Bosnia and Herzegovina.

This paper focuses on the mobility of tertiary (post)graduates, all of whom pursued higher education abroad during the early professional career stage and have returned home upon completion of their advanced degrees. Both quantitative and qualitative research methods were used to analyse patterns, size and outcomes of highly educated returnees and their impact on social, labour and country development. The study provides conclusions on recognising the value of a returnees’ qualifications, their professional status, integration in the domestic labour market, advanced knowledge and skills transfers as well as their acceptance from the government and academic institutions.