The Tensions of Diasporic ‘Return’ Migration

Abstract

Propelled by the globalization of work opportunities in the Global South, thousands of Viet Kieu (overseas Vietnamese) 1.5- and second-generation migrants are “returning” to Vietnam to find skilled work. Through a global ethnography in urban Ho Chi Minh City, this article illustrates how these diasporic “returnees” negotiate their contentious relationship with their nonmigrating, often poorer extended family. My research contributes to the migrant gift giving and reciprocity literature by examining the many ways that “return” migration can create tensions and ambiguity within existing transnational family remittance relationships across borders. The increased presence of diasporic “return” migrants also prompts scholars to reconsider the durability of transnational family ties across the generations, as face-to-face encounters reveal how class, generation, age hierarchy, and gender can create micro-level axes of difference and distancing.