Coming ’home’ in times of uncertainty: Return experiences and constructions of home among Swedish mobile families

What is the project about?

This research aims to illuminate the motivations, lived experiences and everyday practices of return migration among Swedish families who have lived abroad for employment-related reasons. Returning Swedes constitute a significant proportion of incoming migrants to Sweden, yet remain under-researched. They are seldom considered migrants and often expect a smooth return, but existing knowledge points towards numerous challenges. Recent events, including Brexit, the Covid 19-pandemic, the war in Europe, the recession, and accelerating climate change, create a unique impetus for return migration, making this research timely.

We explore migration through a family lens, arguing that family-related priorities and commitments are central to understanding practices of return, while considering experiences of mobility and return from the point of view of several family members. Importantly, we explore the perspective of children in mobile families, which previous research has insufficiently attended to.

The project focuses on one type of migration (employment-related) but includes returnees with different social backgrounds and varied access to resources of different kinds. The group is often described as highly educated and considered privileged, but our perspective enables us to compare and analyse strategies for reintegration in relation to the returnees’ social position and the resources they mobilise. The research brings important insights into what social reintegration entails for mobile families in a Swedish context.

Research questions:

1. What are the recent patterns of return migration to Sweden, and have motivations for return shifted over the last ten years? What information and guidance are offered to returning families by public authorities?
2. How do returnees mobilise resources acquired in different national contexts in order to access opportunities and/or overcome challenges for reintegration into Swedish society? How do their experiences compare to their expectations of ‘coming home’?
3. How do family priorities, commitments and dynamics shape lived experiences and everyday practices of return?

The study includes a descriptive analysis of register data capturing macro-structural patterns of return to Sweden over the last ten years (2014-2023), analysis of guidance for returnees from public authorities, and 18-20 family case studies involving interviews with different family members. In interviews with adults, we will use a narrative interview method, while interviews with children and young people will combine narrative interviews with visual methods, in order to access their experiences of mobility and meaningful relationships.

Participants

The research team consists of Maja Cederberg (Principal Investigator), Oksana Shmulyar Gréen and Ylva Wallinder, all based in the Department of Sociology and Work Science at University of Gothenburg. Maja Cederberg researches migration and integration processes and social mobility in a transnational context, Oksana Shmulyar Gréen conducts research on transnational family mobility and childhoods in the EU, and Ylva Wallinder researches labour mobility and transnational privileges, including among mobile Swedish professionals.

Links to homepages of project participants:

• https://www.gu.se/om-universitetet/hitta-person/majacederberg External link.
• https://www.gu.se/en/about/find-staff/oksanashmulyar-green External link.
• https://www.gu.se/om-universitetet/hitta-person/ylvawallinder External link.