A Review of Researches on Return Migration

Abstract

Driven by factors related to economic development, return migration has become a topic of increasing academic interest. There are several mainstream theoretical interpretations of the phenomenon of return migration, and the existing literature focuses on the causes of return, employment choice and return effects. Through literature review, it is found that both economic factors and non-economic factors will have an impact on the decision to return. Compared with non-migrant group, returned migrants are more likely to engage in self-employed. Returned migrants may bring back advanced ideas and technologies, which will have a positive impact on local economic and social development, but the driving effect on employment is limited. In developing countries, “entrepreneurship” means vulnerability. Entrepreneurship is a choice made when all other labor market opportunities are not satisfactory or individuals have no employment opportunities, which belongs to necessity-based entrepreneurship. This paper discusses the findings based on a summary of the review and provides the prospects for future research.