Return mobilities of highly skilled young people to a post-conflict region: the case of Kurdish-British to Kurdistan – Iraq

Article


Keles, J. 2022. Return mobilities of highly skilled young people to a post-conflict region: the case of Kurdish-British to Kurdistan – Iraq. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies. 0, pp. 1-21. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183X.2019.1600401
TypeArticle
TitleReturn mobilities of highly skilled young people to a post-conflict region: the case of Kurdish-British to Kurdistan – Iraq
AuthorsKeles, J.
Abstract

Building upon insights from recent studies on the ‘return mobilities’ of children of migrants to their parents’ country of origin, this paper focuses on the motives of highly skilled young people from the UK who migrate to their parental post-conflict region (Kurdistan-Iraq), an area that has experienced long-term conflict and profound economic and political instability. The existing studies on children of migrants’ return mobilities place more emphasis on cultural and economic considerations while paying little attention to the associated ideological and political elements. Based on interviews concerning 32 highly skilled young British-Kurdish people’s migration to Kurdistan-Iraq, this paper argues that the transnational mobilities of the 1.5 generation and second generation of refugee-diasporas are more driven by the collective trauma of their parents’ displacement, their feeling of expulsion and intergenerational articulation with an imagined homeland, than they are by economic considerations and/or nostalgia. The Kurdish political aspiration to develop Kurdish institutions and a national economy for a potential statehood in Northern Iraq has also created hope among young Kurdish people and influenced their motivations to ‘return’. In this context, this paper focuses on the political, ideological and emotional dimensions of return mobilities and draws attention to return mobilities among a new generation of refugees to their parental post-conflict homeland.

KeywordsTransnationalism; Return mobilities; Diaspora; 1.5 generation; Second generation; Root migration; Post-conflict homeland
Research GroupLaw and Politics
PublisherRoutledge
JournalJournal of Ethnic and Migration Studies
ISSN1369-183X
Electronic1469-9451
Publication dates
Online10 May 2019
Print17 Feb 2022
Publication process dates
Deposited07 Jun 2019
Accepted11 Mar 2019
Submitted11 May 2018
Output statusPublished
Accepted author manuscript
File Access Level
Open
Copyright Statement

This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies on 10/05/2019, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/1369183X.2019.1600401

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183X.2019.1600401
Web of Science identifierWOS:000472408300001
LanguageEnglish
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