To Stay or to Return: The Main Determinants of Return Migration Intentions among First-Generation Moroccans Living in Italy and Spain

Angela Paparusso, Università di Roma "La Sapienza"
Elena Ambrosetti, Università di Roma "La Sapienza"

Although return migration has been already studied during the past, providing helpful conceptualizations of this phenomenon, it has recently received a special attention from researchers and policy makers. Some scholars suggest that migrants’ origin countries and international organizations should consider return of highly skilled migrants more in terms of “brain gain” and consequently as a source of development, in the same way of money remittances. Our study aims to explore the determinants of return migration intentions among first-generation Moroccans living in Italy and Spain using two different datasets: the Statistics on Income and living conditions of families with migrants carried out by ISTAT and the National Immigrant Survey carried out by INE. By using a multinomial logistic regression, we are going to examine empirically the effect of duration of residence, the integration process and transnational participation on the Moroccans’ return migration intentions.