Rethinking return from the ‘left ahead’: the case of Filipino migrant workers in transnational spaces in Rome Italy

ABSTRACT Taking a transnational approach to return migration, this article draws significance on the onsite migration experiences of migrant workers, dubbed as ‘left ahead’. Integrating transnationalism dimensions with the return preparedness framework, the study explores the return discourses ‘from above’ through institutional actors and policies in the Italy–Philippines migration nexus; and ‘from below’ through the narratives of migrant Filipino workers in the city of Rome. The article shows that return framings were seen as a process of preparation, rather than of permanence to the linear binary flow of human mobility. Such preparation is done by the migrant workers through economic, political, and socio-cultural transnational activities, which underscored the vitality of examining host-home links that migrant workers sustain under the conditionalities of both countries. The article highlights the vitality of the onsite stage of the migratory process, where development should also take place. It necessitates to critically look at how migrant workers are able to mobilize their resources under the host-home country conditions. The article supports the imperative of ‘deterritorializing’ development for the migrant workers for them to fully exercise their agency towards shaping their successful return.