Return migration

Return migration, or remigration in the broad sense of that word, is the migration of people back to their country of citizenship, origin, or ancestry. Research topics include the return migration process, motivations for returning, the experiences returnees encounter, and the impacts of return migration on both the country of departure and the country of arrival. This migration may be voluntary in line with the right of return, or it may be involuntary as a result of deportation.

The exact numbers are debated, but historian Mark Wyman says that return migration has been an enormous phenomenon, and he gives this example: "at least one-third of the 52 million Europeans who left Europe between 1824 and 1924 returned permanently to their homelands."

Return migration is the repatriation of a migrant. It should be distinguished from circular migration, in which migrants repeatedly travel to and from the country of origin, for example to plant and harvest crops each season.