Readjustment Problems of Returned Migrants

Abstract

Migrants face a great variety of difficulties upon return. They normally come back from relatively rich countries to countries with limited job opportunities and with lower standards of living; they come back from differentiated social systems to relatively simple social and economic structures in which much of the overseas acquired skills may prove to be not very useful; they come back from countries with sometimes very different norms, values and ideas, into their traditional cultures etc. There is massive evidence of the enormous personal problems returning migrants encounter upon homecoming, and the resulting disappointments. This is well documented in the case of students from the third world who returned after graduation at European and American Universities. These students have usually been abroad during their formative years and they have been very much influenced by their foreign experiences. The processes of alienation and readaptation of overseas students are very well described in two impressive case studies: Bennett et al. (1958) about Japanese returning from the U.S.A. and Useem & Useem (1955) about English and American educated Indians.