Here or there? Gendered return migration to Bolivia from Spain during economic crisis and fluctuating migration policies

Abstract

This article's aims are twofold: to consider the motivations for return migrations to Bolivia from Spain in a context of economic crisis and to explore the impact of recent Spanish migration policies using a transnational family perspective. Migrants’ decisions to return home are embedded in the gendered allocation of economic and reproductive responsibilities and patriarchal ideology in Bolivian homes. Spain's tightened immigration regulations of 2007 limited circular migration between the two countries for the majority of Bolivians in Spain. In contrast, a window for citizenship acquisition opened for approximately one-third of Bolivians in Spain between 2012 and 2015. With dual Bolivian and Spanish citizenship, their freedom to travel between the two countries has afforded them far more scope for meeting transnational family care and provisioning responsibilities.