Rural tourism as a catalyst for labor return? A rethinking of return migration from a mixed embeddedness perspective

This study conducts a typological investigation on return migrants during the development of rural tourism from the perspective of mixed embeddedness. It employs a comparative analysis of return migration in two case sites combined with the pattern-matching method. The findings suggest that return migrants in rural tourism destinations can be categorized into four types based on their motivation and the length of intended stay, including entrepreneurial return migrants, lifestyle return migrants, seasonal return migrants, and drifting return migrants. Return migration is influenced by a mix of cognitive, social, and institutional embeddedness, exhibiting varying degrees of mixed embeddedness among different types of return migrants. Given the heterogeneity among return migrants, the role played by rural tourism varies and is affected by their various levels of embeddedness. By providing a novel typology of return migration and investigating the distinct role of rural tourism, this study offers theoretical and practical insights into migration studies within the context of rural tourism.