Coming Home? Refugees, Migrants and those who Stayed Behind

Maxine L. Marcolis of University of Florida reviews Coming Home? Refugees, Migrants and those who Stayed Behind by Lynellyn D. Long and Ellen Oxfeld.  Lynellyn D. Long and Ellen Oxfeld discuss how the pull of the familiar and the desire to begin anew are conflicting impulses for the nearly 180 million people who live outside their countries of origin, often with the expectation of returning home. Of 30 million people who immigrated to the United States alone between 1900 and 1980, 10 million are believed to have returned to their homelands. While migration flows occur in both directions, surprisingly few studies of transnationalism, global migration, or diaspora address return experiences. Undertaking a comparative analysis of how coming home affects individuals and their communities in a myriad cultural and geographic settings, the contributors to this volume seek to understand the unique return migration experiences of refugees, migrants, and various others as they confront the social pressures and a sense of displacement that accompany their journeys.

Read the book review at https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1747-7379.2004.tb00249.xd.