ABSTRACT
This chapter presents some distinctive features of long-term diasporic return migration. It proposes a conceptual framework inspired by social theory for the examination of diasporic return motivations and experiences. The chapter details the long-term settlement in post-Soviet Armenia of Armenians from well-established diasporic communities – mostly from Iran, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Canada and the USA. The celebration of mobility and fluidity was reinforced by the rise of the transnationalism approach in migration and diaspora studies in the 1990s. The chapter explores two main dimensions of long-term diasporic return migration – envisioning and planning return, and experiencing and performing return. It details the adoption of a balanced approach that accounts for sedentarism and mobility, both objective and subjective factors when studying various aspects of long-term diasporic return. Some of the conceptual tools Pierre Bourdieu developed with the goal of transcending the dichotomies of micro/macro, subjectivism/objectivism, free will/determinism, and agency/structure can provide useful analytical lenses when studying diasporic return.
