Stay or return? Gendered family negotiations and transnational projects in the process of remigration of (late) resettlers to Russia

Abstract This paper investigates return motives and strategies of (late) resettlers who returned to Russia after some years of migration experience in Germany. The empirical results are based on qualitative and quantitative data collected in 2009–2011. Our sample illustrates the transnational projects of return and the gendered perspective in the different aspects of remigration. The research results show that family remigration was mostly initiated and enacted by the male returnees. Most interviewed wives justified their decision to return with the objective to comply with the wishes of their husbands. Therefore the family decision-making to return is a field of gendered negotiations with sometimes biased winning and losing for the parties involved.