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The Hierarchization of Migration

Return as Reinforcement of Socio-Economic Stratification

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Return Migration to Afghanistan

Part of the book series: Migration, Diasporas and Citizenship ((MDC))

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Abstract

In this chapter, Van Houte interrogates the expectations about the socio-economic characteristics of return migrants that inform the debate on the linkages between return migration, development and peace-building. Van Houte explores the interplay between socio-economic background, the migration experience, post-return embeddedness and mobility. By doing so, the author explores a new avenue of the hierarchization of mobility: the socio-economic stratification among voluntary and involuntary return migrants. Van Houte argues that socio-economic differences that existed prior to migration are reinforced by the migration experience, and that this results in strongly differentiated patterns of multidimensional embeddedness and transnational mobility upon return. These patterns reinforce previously existing socio-economic stratification and restrict expectations of return migration and development.

This chapter is based on Van Houte, Marieke, Melissa Siegel, and Tine Davids. 2015. “Return to Afghanistan: Migration as Reinforcement of Socio-economic Stratification.” Population, Space and Place, 21(8): 692–703. doi:10.1002/psp.1876.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    To protect the privacy of the participants in this study, all names are pseudonyms. For the same reason, details such as towns or countries of residence are sometimes intentionally unspecified.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. International Migration Institute Department of International Development, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK

    Marieke van Houte

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  1. Marieke van Houte
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van Houte, M. (2016). The Hierarchization of Migration. In: Return Migration to Afghanistan. Migration, Diasporas and Citizenship. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-40775-3_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-40775-3_4

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-40774-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-40775-3

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