Małgorzata Budyta-Budzyńska.
2017.
Return migration – profits and losses, capital and migration remittances. The case of emigration from Iceland to Stare Juchy
CMR Working Papers, nr 101(159)
Abstract
Stare Juchy is a Masurian commune which is “a focus” of emigration, in Florian Znaniecki’s terms: a sizable percentage of its inhabitants reside and work abroad. Emigration from Juchy is an example of economic emigration from a peripheral region. Most migrants have elementary or vocational education, the outflows are directed towards one single destination (Iceland), and are based entirely on migration chains. Still, emigration from Stare Juchy has its own peculiarities related to the local socio-economic situation and model of emigration that developed here. In this text, the results of studies on emigration from Stare Juchy, carried out in the summer and fall of 2016, and in the spring of 2017 are presented. A special attention was given to re-emigration: the motives of returning, the re-emigrants’ contributions to local community, and effects of economic and social remittances. To what extent they are agents of change, and whether their activities and attitudes confirm the observations of Krzywicki and Znaniecki on the impact of emigration on technological, custom and cultural changes in the local community; or whether they stabilize and preserve the social system, by providing a financial sources that allow families to survive without any need to face new challenges.
Keywords
return emigration, emigration from peripheral region, economic and social remittances, Iceland, Stare Juchy
