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Understanding Different Post-Return Experiences

The Role of Preparedness, Return Motives and Family Expectations for Returned Migrants in Morocco

  • Open Access
  • Published: 27 October 2015
  • volume 2, pages 335–360 (2014)
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Understanding Different Post-Return Experiences
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  • Masja van Meeteren1,
  • Godfried Engbersen2,
  • Erik Snel3 &
  • …
  • Marije Faber MA4 
  • 990 Accesses

  • 14 Citations

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  • Cite this article

Abstract

Studies aimed at understanding different post-return experiences point at various factors that are involved. In this article, we show the importance of striving for a contextualized understanding of post-return experiences as different factors appear to be important in different cases. Our study sets out to seek the value of the theory of preparedness proposed by Cassarino and simultaneously contribute to further contextualization of this theory through a qualitative study conducted in Morocco. Drawing on 44 qualitative interviews with a diverse set of returned migrants we scrutinize how mechanisms related to intersections between factors commonly found to be important in the literature take shape to make different factors important in different cases. For example, we show how the ability to keep transnational contacts with the destination country after return adds to positive post-return experiences, but only for migrants with specific return motives. In doing so, this article contributes to theory specification and contextualization.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Criminology, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands

    Masja van Meeteren (Assistant Professor)

  2. Erasmus University of Rotterdam, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

    Godfried Engbersen (Professor of Sociology, elected member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences (KNAW)

  3. Department of Sociology, Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR), Rotterdam, The Netherlands

    Erik Snel (Assistant Professor)

  4. Rad-boud University Nijmegen, Nijmegen, The Netherlands

    Marije Faber MA

Authors
  1. Masja van Meeteren
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  2. Godfried Engbersen
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  3. Erik Snel
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  4. Marije Faber MA
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Marije Faber MA.

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Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits use, duplication, adaptation, distribution, and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.

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Cite this article

van Meeteren, M., Engbersen, G., Snel, E. et al. Understanding Different Post-Return Experiences. CMS 2, 335–360 (2014). https://doi.org/10.5117/CMS2014.3.MEET

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  • Published: 27 October 2015

  • Issue Date: September 2014

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.5117/CMS2014.3.MEET

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Keywords

  • return migration
  • Morocco
  • transnationalism
  • return motivations
  • preparedness
  • transnational obligations
  • post-return experiences
  • immigration
  • family expectations
  • the Netherlands

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