A Right of Return?: Ethnic Return Migration Policy, Practice and Consequence in Contemporary Europe

My research will investigate ethnic return migration in modern Europe, with the objective of producing a seminal and holistic country-by-country theoretical overview of the phenomenon in three core areas: why states establish an ethnic return migration re gime in the first place (policy), how such a legal regime is run (practice), and what political and socio-cultural outcomes can be observed (consequence). The research will also interrogate notions of belonging, citizenship, culture, ethno-national identi ty, ethnic conflict, multiculturalism and diaspora (especially the diaspora-homeland relationship) as they relate to my primary research focus. By analysing primary sources (laws, published policy) the research will develop a country-by-country case stud y overview of ethnic return migration laws and policies (either de jure or de facto) in Europe and elsewhere and use this to establish a rigorous, first-of-its-kind theoretical model demonstrating how and why states adopt ethnic return migration policies, or why they reject them. It will use both a quantitative (analysis of relevant statistical data and questionnaires) and a qualitative approach (interviews with governmental departments and relevant public figures) alongside a parsing of laws and policy t o produce a corpus of peer-reviewable data and analysis for publication in prestigious academic journals or textbook format. Drawing on my extant academic strengths (international migration - both historical and contemporary - cultural confidence, belon ging, ethno-national identity, ethnic conflict, multiculturalism, diasporas and citizenship law) to maximise multi-disciplinary applicability of the research, I will co-operate with colleagues at KULTRANS initiative of the University of Oslo to produce co mparative output studying how ethnic return migration contrasts and complements extant research into culture, identity, politics and sociolinguistics. I will also organise public seminars and conferences.