Re-adjustment in the home country – The effects of return migration and transnationalism

This paper analyses how returned and transnational migrants can affect development and social change in the home country. It focuses on the Shkodra Region in Albania. Returnees and transnational migrants use the financial and social capital acquired during migration as mechanisms to readjust in their home country, while at the same time affecting development and social change. The paper deals with a specific returnees’ group, entrepreneur-returnees, and raises some main research questions: How is the social and cultural capital gained during migration used while setting up new enterprises? In what scale does this capital determine the success of the undertaking?

Acting as agents of development, these migrants have taken advantage of their migration experience, especially in the opening of new enterprises. This process has also involved the non-migrant population through the introduction of new employment possibilities and the transmission of new ideas and knowledge.