Back and Forth: Immigrants’ Stories of Migration and Return

This study focuses on the experience of re-migration. It uses the narratives of 32 adults, emigrants from Israel who intended to stay abroad permanently, but eventually returned, to explore central themes. Among the themes which emerged from the narratives are language and identity, idealization and real-ity, and the role of the wider social ethos in affecting the personal experiences of first migration and return. The paper then analyzes these narratives in light of two central models: Berry’s acculturation model, and Sussman’s cultural identity model.

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