Situating and theorising national and ethnic expressions of place, culture and identity

Readings and analyses of studies of nationalism, ethnicity and identity have offered valuable insight into the multiple and shifting notions of home, place and self in the return migration project. Moreover, the understanding of nationalism, ethnicity and identity as complex processes of cultural articulation and signification has informed my research project with a theoretical backbone that exposed otherwise concealed notions of migrant belongingness. Furthermore, the analytical terms used in the conceptualisation of the results were selected and developed on the basis of this framework. This revealed how migrant belongingness can be explained in relation to the social construction of place. The returnees’ narratives and life-stories, significant sources for the articulation of migrant life and return migration, were transformed into narratives exposing constructions of nation, self and place.