Moving to find home: Emotion, imagination, and onward migration in the Iranian diaspora

Abstract

Recent years have seen a growing number of studies on onward migration and specifically the motivations international migrants may have for leaving their first country of settlement. Many of these studies argue that onward migration occurs as migrants pursue opportunities to study, work and reunite with family members in different places. So far little research has been undertaken to understand how affect, emotion and imaginings of home also contribute to onward migration decision-making. This study aims to fill this lacuna in the research by focusing on the case of diasporic Iranians who initially moved to Sweden as refugees in the 1980s and 1990s, stayed for at least five years and then subsequently made the decision to move on to other parts of the Iranian diaspora. The findings of the study illustrate that the participants’ onward migration decisions may be related to their emotional encounters with places over time, and their evolving imaginings of what constitutes ideal homes in diasporic space. The study draws on rich material collected through multiple life history narrative interviews conducted with Swedish-Iranian migrants currently living in London, UK and Toronto, Canada.