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The purpose of this paper is to challenge the idea of the immobile immigrant worker, trapped in the bottom segments of the labour market, by exploring how immigrants and their descendants (sometimes designated second generation immigrants) develop re‐emigration strategies in their first country of settlement in Europe when faced with structural or conjunctural barriers to the advancement of their socio‐economic situation.

Empirical evidence was collected through structured interviews aimed at capturing labour market and residential trajectories of workers of African origin and their descendants in Portugal, with a particular emphasis on the period between 1998 and 2006.

Findings suggest that in some cases, immigrants draw on social networks available to them to engage in processes of continued intra‐European mobility. International re‐emigration emerges as a work‐space mobility strategy for migrant workers and their descendants when there was no significant social mobility in the first destination. Similarly, international geographical mobility may constitute a self‐perpetuating strategy across generations to escape structural immobility faced by certain immigrant groups in destination contexts.

Experiences reported are situated, so cannot be taken to represent those of all workers of African origin in Portugal.

Findings presented in the paper highlight potential consequences of perpetuating geographical mobility throughout time, namely in terms of labour market conditions and family dynamics. They also highlight the need to look at socio‐economic mobility trajectories within Europe as integrated space and not just within national borders.

The paper proposes an encompassing view of migrants’ (im)mobilities over time, to include the conditions of their labour market incorporation and its links to further spatial, international, mobility.

At a time when migration policy has moved to the centre of national and European policy agendas, the three Baltic states are taking their first steps towards building a cohesive policy response to emigration. This is especially important in the wake of the global financial crisis, which generated an increased outflow from the Baltic states.

The Baltic states are facing variety of challenges in part caused by this movement of mainly working-age men and women: demographic issues related to an ageing society, labour market challenges and social security system sustainability. Within this context, the discussion of human resource losses is growing in the public sphere in the Baltic states.

Based on interviews with experts in labour and migration in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania and a review of key national policy documents, this article analyses the commonalities among and differences between these three countries’ national responses.

Despite some variations in the characteristics and extent of emigration from the three countries, the interviewed experts agree that the European Union’s policy of free mobility is socially and economically problematic. As the interviews indicate, there have been strong calls in Latvia and Lithuania for a more cohesive intra-European migration management policy to address current imbalances between EU member states and ensure that the loss of human resources in sending countries is accounted for in the recruitment policies of receiving countries. On another hand, Estonia experiences more circular movement patterns and demonstrates a rather liberal view towards migration issues, seeing a virtue in the (regional) open market.

The purpose of this paper is to explain the current role of foreign foundations in the cross-border mobility of Russian elite scientists.

The methodology is based on a combination of a quantitative survey (December 2004-February 2005) of former Russian Humboldtians and qualitative research (expert interviews in 2005 and in 2012, respectively) of Russian alumni of the Alexander von Humboldt foundation (Germany).

For Russian elite researchers participating in academic mobility, in 2000s it is rather cross-border mobility’ brain circulation’ rather than “brain drain” a dominant form of academic mobility typical. Even in 2000s, western foundations still played a significant while twofold role – promoting emigration of for a small part of Russian elite researchers, on the one hand, while and getting access to top-level labs, etc. and to international academic chains of excellence for the majority of them, on the other. Coming back to the home country, affiliation with foreign foundations reduces the dependence of Russian elite researchers on hierarchical structures within the national state science system and promotes project teams and network forms of interaction their career. However, Russian scientists dependence on foreign funding affect both the scope of research and their academic status (mostly – second-level positions within research projects, etc.). Among the reasons to for leave leaving Russia it is primarily the desire to remain have closer access to their academic community and the equipment to do on the top level in research. The paper formulates some measures to foster incentives to stay in Russia and respectively to support re-emigration of elite researchers, in form of world class research labs and strengthening the motivation of senior researchers to work in the home country.

Research limitations consist in using of only one of the alumni networks of several western foundations database.

The paper is unique as regards the empirical results; its value consists in their organizational, social and political implications.

The purpose of this paper is to understand the value of foreign work experience for young migrants after their return to the home country labour market and their labour market preferences relative to stayers.

The authors analyse the labour market integration patterns of young return migrants in Slovakia. After reconstructing the life histories of young people from online CVs, a set of regression models investigates the attractiveness, salary expectations and positions of interest to returnees in comparison to stayers.

Post-accession foreign work experience increases the attractiveness of job candidates. Foreign work experience changes the expectations of returnees with respect to wages and widens their perspective on the location of future work. In the underperforming labour market, migration experience signals to employers a set of skills that differentiate young returnees from young stayers in a positive way.

While the web data are not representative, it allows the authors to study return migration from a perspective that large representative data sets do not allow.

Foreign work experience is, in general, an asset for (re)integration into the home labour market, but the higher salary demands of returnees might hinder the process in a less-skilled segment of the labour market.

Return migration is a relatively underresearched area, and knowledge about the perception of returnees among employers and the labour market preferences of returnees is relatively limited. Another contribution lies in the use of online data to analyse return migration from the perspective of both labour demand and supply.

To identify the trajectories of occupational mobility among non-EU immigrant workers in Europe and to test empirical data against neoclassical human capital theory that predicts upward occupational mobility and labor market segmentation theories proposing immigrant confinement to secondary segments.

Data from survey and semi-structured interviews (2,859 and 357, respectively) with immigrants from Brazil, Ukraine, and Morocco in the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Portugal, and Norway. Multinomial regression analysis to test the likelihood of moving downward, upward, or stability and identify explanatory factors, complemented with qualitative evidence.

We found support for the thesis of segmented labor market theories of limited upward occupational mobility following migration. However, immigrants with longer residence in the destination country have higher chances of upward mobility compared to stability and downward mobility, giving also support for the neoclassical human capital theory. Frail legal status impacts negatively on upward mobility chances and men more often experience upward mobility after migration than women.

Findings reflect the specific situation of immigrants from three origin countries in four destination areas and cannot be taken as representative. In the multinomial regression we cannot distinguish between cohort effects and duration of stay.

Education obtained in the destination country is very important for migrants’ upward occupational mobility, bearing important policy implications with regards to migrants’ integration.

Its focus on trajectories of mobility through migration looking at two important transitions: (1) from last occupation in the origin country to first occupation at destination and (2) from first occupation to current occupation and offers a wide cross-country comparison both in terms of origin and destination countries in Europe.

This paper compares the ways in which different livestock and agricultural products are exchanged in post-socialist Mongolia. It tries to explain why some goods are more commoditised than others. The hypothesis is that when marketing or barter exchange with professional merchants entail high opportunity costs, the chosen modus will rather be gift giving or personal barter within local networks. High opportunity costs, in turn, may arise because of the importance goods have for domestic consumption, because of the transaction costs connected with their exchange, or because of a high prestige value, which is not reflected in high market prices.

The Albanian migration has always reflected a family character, be that before 1945 when Albania was not yet completely isolated, as well as after 1990 when borders were reopened. This feature characterized all types of movement, internal or international, permanent or seasonal migration, return migration or transnational movements and remigration. The purpose of this study is to investigate the role of the family as a very important factor in making decisions regarding migration and answering questions from why to how to migrate, from when to where, whom to ask for help or how to invest remittances.

Based on the case study of a rural area in Northern Albania, the Administrative Unit of Dajç, this paper explores in detail the roles of family and kinship on decisions regarding return migration, the re-adjustment process, remigration or transnational life.

By exploring the role of the family context in remigration and vice-versa, the paper reflects that the family biography – including the lifestyle, plans for the future or expectations – has changed due to previous migration experiences or challenges and difficulties when returning to the home country.

It demonstrates how individual decisions to migrate or to “return home” are negotiated and supported within families making transnational life a family project. The paper adopts a new approach in the Albanian Migration Studies, which may be implied on broader areas for further research in the future.

This study aims to intend to appraise the characteristics of returnee entrepreneurship and its contributions to development in form of transfer of knowledge and skills in the Nigerian context.

A case study approach complemented with situational observations was used. The lived experiences of two returnees were interrogated in semi-structured interviews for an in-depth analysis.

Findings illustrate the dilemmas and challenges returnee entrepreneurs from the developed host countries confronted in their entrepreneurial endeavors in the homeland.

This paper highlights the misconceptions around relocation of immigrants’ business people back to their homeland. It contributes to the growing literature on the social and economic impacts of returnee entrepreneurs (as opposed to diaspora and transnational entrepreneurs) to their homelands’ development.

This article aims to highlight the dark side of the restrictive immigration policies, undertaken both at European and national level, paying special attention to the negative effects that these policies can cause.

In particular, the article focuses on two of the main aims stated by these migration policies: the organization of legal immigration and the control of the illegal immigration.

The paper demonstrates how the repressive instruments, today put into practice, not only have not been a solution, but they have produced destructive effects, such as: the increasing of illegal immigration and the consequential increasing of the exploitation of immigrants – making the borders between smuggling and trafficking more and more transitory – the strengthening of the more and more professionalized criminal organization and finally the enlargement of the black market's borders, of which the European single market feeds itself.

The paper offers insights into the dark side of European immigration policy.