As I am nearing the end of ethnographic fieldwork for the Swedish contribution to the MORE Project, I was looking for ways to connect my PhD work on decided return migration with my postdoctoral research on return and readmission policies. The notion of “sustainability” of return and reintegration, both on a conceptual level and in policy implementation, came as a useful bridge for these two areas of my recent work.
The paper I’m developing explores how the meaning of sustainability in return migration has evolved; how a proper understanding of sustainability is not possible without looking at the voluntariness in returnee decision-making, and how varying conceptualizations of sustainability are both situated within the migration-mobility debate and influenced by the sedentary bias. In an effort to provide further clarity, the theoretical part of the paper examines the distinctions between sustainable return and reintegration and further asks the question: Return and reintegration – Sustainable for whom? The host state, the home state, or the migrants themselves? Having established the paper’s conceptual framework within the sustainability of decided return migration, in this paper I aim to answer three distinct research questions:
- Does nurturing transnational ties with the former host state help or hinder the sustainability of decided return and reintegration?
- How can people who genuinely want to return to the home state actually stay there, so that any re-emigration is a matter of choice?
- What role do policies of the home state play in the sustainability of decided return migration?
To answer these questions, I look at the case of Bosnia and Herzegovina and base my argument on inductive thematic analysis of 40 interviews I conducted with decided returnees. Their return is decided because its voluntariness is guaranteed, as they have the legal, economic and social alternatives to remain in the host state. Their return is self-organised as they are not part of any AVR (assisted voluntary return) program aided by government policy or international organisations. The empirical part of the paper explores how the nurturing of transnational commercial and professional ties with the former host state can promote the sustainability of decided return and reintegration in the ICT sector and other export-oriented industries. Conversely, transnational ties could be an impediment to successful return and reintegration in fields that are more place-bound and susceptible to greater political control, such as public employment in healthcare and education sectors.
I feel fortunate to have had the chance to present my work-in-progress in Prishtina, Kosovo, a place of interesting migratory dynamics both historically and at the present, a highly relevant setting for return migration discussions. My first time visiting Prishtina, Kosovo was inspiring, intriguing, and innovative and all because of the final conference of the Transnational Families, Farms and Firms: Migrant Entrepreneurs in Kosovo and Serbia since the 1960s research project. Now that Kosovo has lifted visa-requirements for BiH citizens, I was finally able to visit without jumping through inordinate administrative hoops. Since I’ve enjoyed such a warm welcome here, I can only hope that the BiH side will soon make visa-free travel possible for Kosovar citizens, so that our mutual and regional ties could be further strengthened.
The conference, entitled Entrepreneurs, Remittances, Social Change: Migration and Development in Southeastern Europe and beyond was organized by the Leibniz Institue for East and Southeast European Studies (IOS), Regensburg, the Leibniz Institute of Agricultural Development in Transition Economies (IAMO), Halle/Saale and the Europe-Universitat Viadrina, Frankfurt/Oder in cooperation with the University of Prishtina. We gathered at the lovely Hotel Prishtina on May 15-16, 2025 to discuss how migrants affect social change and development in their home states.
After an introduction and welcoming remarks made by Ulf Brunnbauer (TRAFF Project), Jorn Rohde, Ambassador of the FR Germany to Prishtina, and Besnik Krasniqi (University of Prishtina), we started the academic part of the conference with Russell King presenting a scoping review of the literature discussing the impact of return migration on economic development and social change in migrant-origin countries.
Following paper presentations focused on topics ranging from the socioeconomic reintegration upon return, entrepreneurship and bridging knowledge gaps, intangible remittances, building homes in rural areas, volunteering and moral economies, migrant capital and social remittances, the role of international development projects in diaspora engagement, transnational and intergenerational care work, migrant transnational economic strategies, partnerships between entrepreneurs and the state, Gastarbaiter factories, remittance brokers, migrant positionalities in the international division of labour, and return migrants as transcultural mediators. Coalescing within migration studies, the conference created a truly interdisciplinary scholarly environment with contributions from geographers, political scientists, historians, economists, sociologists, and anthropologists. Historical perspectives were intertwined with contemporary analyses, with methodological mixing of qualitative and quantitative approaches. Case studies encompassed Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Greece Kosovo, North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia and Turkey.
I enjoyed discussing my colleagues’ recent research, and gaining new insights and perspectives to develop my own work. In alphabetical order arranged by last name, the conference participants: Maria Adamopoulou, Thomas Dufhues, Remus Gabriel Anghel, Sara Bernard, Ulf Brunnbauer, Aida Ibricevic, Nilay Kilinc, Russell King, Besnik A. Krasniqi, Carolin Leutloff-Grandits, Nermin Oruc, Robert Pichler, Janine Pinkow-Lapple, Judith Mollers, Milos Rasic, Claudius Strohle, Julie Vullnetari, Sara Zeric, and Mladen Zobec. For the conference program, please click here.
Scholarly presentations were complemented by a practitioners’ roundtable moderated by Carolin Leutloff-Grandits, with the participation of Liza Gashi, Kosovo’s Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and Diaspora and representatives from Kosovo’s entrepreneurship community, the German GIZ, the Kosovo-German Chamber of Commerce, and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
This was my first visit to Prishtina with many future ones, I hope! The local food is just one of many reasons to keep coming back 🙂
Aside from offering opportunities for professional growth, conferences are also unique spaces to meet “old” friends and make new friendships. I am thankful to all participants for making these two days so special with extra gratitude to Janine Pinklow-Lapple and Ulf Brunnbauer for their kind invitation, and to Sara Zeric for generously helping me with some last-minute presentation issues 🙂 We shall meet again, soon!
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