The Experience of Return Migration: Caribbean Perspectives

Since the incorporation of the Caribbean into the European flow of trade in the sixteenth century, the region has experienced successive waves of immigration, emigration and circulation. All forms of migration have therefore been fundamental in the creation and maintenance of Caribbean societies. There is now a considerable amount of return migration to the Caribbean from North America and Europe. There has been very little work published on return migration that focuses on the Caribbean. This book brings together a range of in-depth case studies, concentrating on topics such as the socio-cultural adjustments that are faced by the transnational migrants. Young returning nationals are a particular focus and the book looks at the economic and social roles these return migrants fulfill. The book also develops theoretical constructs concerning how the transnational networks of these returnees help perpetuate mobility, and further the formation of extended multi-local networks linking the returnees with their European, North American and intra-Caribbean kin and families.

Table of Contents:
The experience of return: Caribbean return migrants, Dennis Conway, Robert B. Potter and Joan Phillips; The socio-demographic characteristics of second generation return migrants to St Lucia and Barbados, Robert B. Potter; 'Tales of Two Societies': narratives of adjustment among second generation return migrants to St. Lucia and Barbados, Robert B. Potter; Incorporating race and gender into Caribbean return migration: the example of second generation 'Bajan-Brits', Joan Phillips and Robert B. Potter; The Nexus and the family tree: return migration to Grenada and transnationalism in context, Joseph Rodman and Dennis Conway; My 'Motherland' or 'My Mother's Land'? return migration and the experience of young British-Trinidadians, Marina Lee-Cunin; No place like home: returnee R & R (retention and rejection) in the Caribbean homeland, Roger-Nark De Souza; Return migration to Trinidad and Tobago: motives, consequences and the prospects of remigration, Godfrey St. Bernard; A gendered tale of Puetro Rican return: place, nation and identity, Gena M. Perez; Landscaping Englishness: the postcolonial predicament of returnees in Mandeville, Jamaica, Heather A. Horst; Transatlantic French Caribbean connections: return migration in the context of increasing circulation between France and the Islands, Stephanie Condon; Expressions of migrant mobilities among Caribbean migrants in Toronto, Canada, David Timothy Duval; Transnationalism and return: 'Home' as an enduring fixture and 'Anchor', Dennis Conway; Experiencing Caribbean return: societal contributions, adaptions and frustrations, Robert B. Potter and Dennis Conway; Index.

About the Author :
Robert B. Potter is Professor of Human Geography in the Department of Geography at the University of Reading, UK. Dennis Conway is Professor in the Department of Geography at Indiana University, USA. Dr Joan Phillips is a Part-Time Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Department of Geography at the University of Reading. She is also a full time research fellow at the Policy Studies Institute (PSI), UK.