2015/04/30 by Marta Bolognani
Psychology · Social Sciences · #Migration and Labor Dynamics #Migration, Health and Trauma #Migration, Refugees, and Integration
paper · doi:10.1080/1070289x.2015.1031670
crossref issued 2015/04/30 · crossref published 2015/04/30 · crossref published-online 2015/04/30 · openalex publication_date 2015/04/30 · crossref created 2015/04/30 · crossref published-print 2016/03/03 · crossref deposited 2025/05/27 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29 · crossref indexed 2026/07/30
By referring to the myth of return, migration literature has focused mainly on sociopolitical explanations, neglecting intersubjective dynamics. This paper operates a switch from myth of return to fantasy. This allows the analysis to be detached from the return speculation’s outcome. It also recognises the cross-generational endurance of return-thinking as functional to the process of identity-building as part of a migrant’s search for well-being. Three British Pakistani migration stories will illustrate how return fantasies are not necessarily a symptom of disengagement with the host society, but are part of a common way human beings have to imagine possible futures for themselves and make sense of their present. Fantasies have the potential to create a virtual transitional space where the individual can re-elaborate experiences in a mode that is safer than the one of reality and may have a positive effect on normalising one’s migration experience.