Imagining return. Desire, aspiration and possibility in women’s migration

Return migration, conceived as the re-entry into one’s country of origin following a period of residence abroad, constitutes a multifaceted phenomenon shaped by intersecting political, legal, socio-economic, and cultural dynamics. Its forms and meanings significantly vary according to gender, citizenship, and mobility regimes, and in the case of non-EU migrant women, return is often constrained by restrictive policies and normative gender expectations. The article analyses the data collected from two focus groups conducted with 11 institutional stakeholders – social workers, intercultural mediators, local officials – working on intercultural and social inclusion issues, some of which were also migrants, as part of the project WE PROPOSE, Processes, Policy and Networks in support of women returnees to Tunisia and Morocco. While institutional stakeholders having no direct experience of migration talk about return as a failure of the migration project, linking it with Assisted Voluntary Return (AVR) as the unique possibility, participants with a migrant background describe return as a desire, even if difficult to achieve, highlighting the complexity of this experience. Return thus emerges as a seesaw of desires and possibilities, inviting reflection on how policies in Italy, Europe and North Africa – flattened by a gender-blind perspective – ultimately constrain women’s agency and self-expression.