Transregional spouses, parents and children: How gender and family shape return migration in the French overseas

Abstract

This paper explores the role of migrants' family dynamics over the life cycle on their decisions to return focusing on three dimensions: relationship status, children and intergenerational solidarities. It brings a unique contribution to migration studies by investigating whether these mechanisms differ for male and female migrants. Combining two surveys (Migration Family Ageing and Trajectories and Origins) collected in the origin and destination regions, we study return behaviours of migrants born in the French Overseas departments (DOM) moving from metropolitan France back to their DOM of birth. Contrasting with traditional research which tends to restrict the analysis of family considerations to female migrants, our findings show that family experiences affect return migrations for both men and women, yet in different ways. While partnering, breaking-up and having children affect the returns of both men and women, only female migrants are more likely to return when their parent(s) live in the DOM. This could draw back to a gendered distribution of family roles and responsibilities, but also to gendered networks with stronger ties between female migrants and their parents.