Diasporic Homecomings

In recent decades, increasing numbers of diasporic peoples have returned to their ethnic homelands, whether because of economic pressures, a desire to rediscover ancestral roots, or the homeland government's preferential immigration and nationality policies. Although the returnees may initially be welcomed back, their homecomings often prove to be ambivalent or negative experiences. Despite their ethnic affinity to the host populace, they are frequently excluded as cultural foreigners and relegated to low-status jobs shunned by the host society's populace.Diasporic Homecomings, the first book to provide a comparative overview of the major ethnic return groups in Europe and East Asia, reveals how the sociocultural characteristics and national origins of the migrants influence their levels of marginalization in their ethnic homelands, forcing many of them to redefine the meanings of home and homeland.

Takeyuki Tsuda is Associate Professor of Anthropology in the School of Human Evolution and Social Change at Arizona State University. His publications include Local Citizenship in Recent Countries of Immigration: Japan in Comparative Perspective (2006) and Ethnic Identity: Problems and Prospects for the Twenty-first Century (2006).