Return Migrations to Africa: Editorial

Since the early 2000s, the literature on return migration in general has grown considerably, but there has been thus far relatively few studies on the return of migrants to Africa. The question of the return of African migrants, however, is attracting growing interest among policy makers both in destination countries and in the countries of origin in Africa. The issue of the return of migrants does not only refer to the realization of return as such, but also to the matter of their intentions and reintegration upon returning to their country of origin, which can arise at varied moments in the life trajectories of these migrants. Such nuances related to the return of African migrants are in fact poorly known and explored given the sparsity in available quantitative and qualitative data. This issue of 'Space, Populations, Societies' is part of a continuing body of work seeking to bring together empirical contributions addressing understudied aspects of return migrants, in particularly from Senegal, Niger, Somalia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Tunisia and Egypt.