Voluntary and Involuntary Return Migration

Mexican migration to the United States long exhibited a strong circular pattern, as Mexican migrants returned annually to Mexico after working in US agriculture or other industries. With increased enforcement, undocumented migration from Mexico increasingly took on a permanent character. In addition, Central American migrants could not return to the areas of conflict they fled, and the long distances from their nations of origin made seasonal migration impractical. In recent years, return migration for Mexicans and Central Americans has changed, both in nature and in composition. The renewed significance of return migration is not due to its becoming once again a normal part of the migration process, but to its increasingly involuntary nature as a growing proportion of return migration is taking place in the context of U.S. enforcement practices. Voluntary return involves planning and preparation, but deportation or quasi-involuntary return gives migrants little opportunity to arrange their affairs. The potential difficulties of adjustment that this implies for returnees have become, as we show in this volume, challenging issues not only for returnees, but for their communities and for public policy. The chapters in this book place return migration experiences within the context of the economic, social, and political forces that have determined international migration, return to countries of destination, and settlement in countries of origin. Although there are important differences in the nature of Mexican return migration as compared to Central America, the contributions to this volume demonstrate significant similarities, including poverty in those countries and lack of employment opportunities and of government or institutional policies to receive the returnees.