ABSTRACT
Returning to live in the homeland constitutes a potential final step in the migration process. This chapter examines the individual level of analysis in search of insights into three crucial questions regarding Third World exile communities in the industrialized West. The questions are: How likely are refugees from revolution to return to live in their homeland? Why do some members of these migrant communities go back to their country of origin? and What is required to convince the others to return home? Responses from the comparison group suggest that committed returnees from these three communities are motivated primarily by social and cultural attractions present in the home country. Ethiopian exiles are nearly as likely as the Iranians are to view regime change as a decisive repatriation factor. “If only the present regime is overthrown for the better” are the words used by one Ethiopian interviewee when asked to describe the conditions under which he would return to the sending country.
