Birds of a Feather in transnational ight: Return, Gender and Mobility- Immobility Strategies Between Ecuador and Spain

This article looks beyond the explanation of returning Ecuadorian migrants in the light of the impact of Spain’s economic crisis, analysing return within the framework of the articulation of mobility and immobil- ity strategies and the social and cultural gendered and inter-generational relations of trans- national house- holds. It addresses the way in which female migration and return are closely linked to women’s role as carers, whilst male return is fre- quently conditioned by crises of masculinity, stem- ming from the loss of their role as ‘breadwinners’. The article concludes that return must not merely be considered a journey back, but rather as a con- tinuum of mobility, framed by gender ideologies regarding the role of men and women, as well as by inter-generational strategies that are ac- tivated within the transnational space. The article is based on the empirical data obtained a multi-sited eldwork carried out in Spain and Ecuador with Ecua- dorian transnational families