The Janus-Face of Contemporary Migration: Perspectives on West African Return Migration and Transnationalism with a Focus on Ghana and Senegal

Recently, a burgeoning literature has emerged on the return experience of migrants, with some analysts touting the benefits of return to the socioeconomic development of countries of origin, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa. Still, only few studies have examined how return migrants create and sustain transnational connectivity with their countries of destination upon their return to the homeland, and fewer still have analyzed how these dynamics play out in the context of West African migrants. This primarily theoretical paper explores the interconnections between return migration and transnationalism among West African migrants, focusing on the case of Ghanaian and Senegalese migrants. The insistent premise of the paper posits that contemporary migration is essentially Janus-faced, in the sense that migrants are transnational in both their pre- and post-return periods. The paper addresses the following questions: (i) What are the perspectives of Northern countries and supra-national bodies, such as the EU, on return migration, and how do these perspectives compare with those of Southern countries, such as Ghana and Senegal? (ii) How do West African migrants view their own return migration, and to what extent are their emic perspectives different from those of Northern governments and their government in the homeland? (iii) How do West African returnees—specifically, Ghanaian and Senegalese returnees—use their transitional connectivities to facilitate their resettlement and reintegration in the homeland upon their return? Clearly, return migration elicits a number of important questions, into which this Chapter stands to provide useful preliminary prescience in the context of Ghanaian and Senegalese migrants.