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Returnees for Change?

Afghan Return Migrants’ Identification with the Conflict and Their Potential to Be Agents of Change

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Return Migration to Afghanistan

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

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Abstract

This chapter interrogates the expectation that return migrants can be agents of change for development and peace-building in their country of origin. Van Houte explores four ways in which returnees relate to the conflict: physically, institutionally, psychologically and with regard to the future. The author finds that the only returnees who could potentially live up to any of the expectations raised in the debate on migration, development and peace-building are voluntary returnees. By contrast, involuntary returnees have no potential for Afghan peace-building and development. The findings highlight, first, the importance of the human dimension of returnees’ involvement in the country of origin. Second, they show that transnational mobility is migrants’ strongest asset for overcoming constraints and negotiating change, rather than a weakness that implies their fluid commitment.

This chapter is based on Van Houte, Marieke. 2014. “Returnees for Change? Afghan Return Migrants’ Identification with the Conflict and Their Potential to Be Agents of Change.” Conflict, Security & Development, 14 (5):1–27. doi: 10.1080/14678802.2014.963392.

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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.

  2. 2.

    A few weeks before the interview, the Taliban had attacked a hotel at Lake Qargha, a popular recreational area for locals and internationals from Kabul.

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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). Returnees for Change?. In: Return Migration to Afghanistan. Migration, Diasporas and Citizenship. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-40775-3_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-40775-3_6

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

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