Albanian Return Migration in Times of Economic Hardship: The Role of Migratory Intentions

Not all migrantsMigrants manage to return to the country of origin after some time living abroad. However, this is a highly complex phenomenon that helps to address the reasons which led to migrationMigration itself in both individual and household levels and to highlight issues related to the country of origin and to the destination. In this sense, the context becomes extremely important, and it is likely to expect that the dynamics of return migrationReturn migration change when facing economic hardship. The central aim of this article is to unravel the decision‐making process leading Albanian migrantsMigrants to return in times of crisis by analyzing returnees’ intentions to remigrate or stay in AlbaniaAlbania after having returned. We analyze the influence of economic conditionsEconomic conditions (objective and subjective in three moments: before migrating, while living in the host country, and after their return) on returnees’ migrationMigration intentions based on data drawn from the 2013 Survey on Return MigrationReturn migration and Reintegration in AlbaniaAlbania (INSTAT-IOM). Our results show that both objective and subjective economic conditionsEconomic conditions play an important role on returnees’ remigration intentions. More specifically, unemployment and inactivity have a negative influence on remigration plans if experienced while living at the host country, but their influence becomes positive if experienced after returning to AlbaniaAlbania. We also found that persistent unemployment is one of the main reasons of returnees’ intentions to remigrate.