Greek-American return migration: constructions of identity and reconstructions of place

This paper is concerned with issues of identity, place and belongingness in narratives of return migration. It is based on the oral testimonies and written narratives of second-generation Greek-American return migrants who have moved to Greece, their parents' country of origin. An important consideration in the analysis is the multiple interactions between place of origin and place of destination, network ties and global forces. The paper aims at understanding how these elements influence and shape return migrant behaviour and in particular to enlighten our understanding of return migration as a process that encompasses the combined notion of "place" and "identity" as the outcome of a continuous search for "home" and what this means. The objective is to examine not only the experience of return per se but primarily the meanings attached to this experience. Through this the article aims to develop a clearer understanding of the concepts of identity and place and how these internalisations are articulated in praxis. One of the challenges of this research is to reveal the extent to which returnees' actions are reflective of conscious manifestations of individuals' identity, their self-sense and their positionality of place, real and imagined.