[PDF][PDF] Ties that bind: Families, social capital and Caribbean second-generation return migration

T Reynolds - University of Sussex, Sussex Migration Working …, 2008 - researchgate.net
University of Sussex, Sussex Migration Working Paper, 2008researchgate.net
This paper explores second-generation return migration to the Caribbean and how this is
facilitated by social capital generated through transnational family relationships. My analysis
is positioned and contextualised within broader theories of migration studies. The family
narrative constructed around the 'myth of return'is integral to the young people's accounts of
return migration. Of particular interest in the analysis is how these narratives act as important
social resources in sustaining the second generation's emotional attachment to the family …
Abstract
This paper explores second-generation return migration to the Caribbean and how this is facilitated by social capital generated through transnational family relationships. My analysis is positioned and contextualised within broader theories of migration studies. The family narrative constructed around the ‘myth of return’is integral to the young people’s accounts of return migration. Of particular interest in the analysis is how these narratives act as important social resources in sustaining the second generation’s emotional attachment to the family homeland and in influencing the decision to return alongside other pragmatic and practical constraints. Drawing on fieldwork data, the analysis also examines issues of adjustment and settlement, particularly ways the ‘insider/outsider’status and existing gender and social class relations inform experiences of return migration among the second generation.
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