Securing Networks or Networks of Security? Portuguese Emigrant Descendant Returnees Negotiate Transnational Positionings

Abstract. The primary aim of this article is to analyze feelings of belonging and the notion of transnationality among descendants of Portuguese emigrants who have returned to Portugal. The key considerations of the analysis are the multiple interactions between place of origin and destination, transnational network constructions, and identification negotiations that often take place in the post-return. The study aims to understand how such interactions, constructions, and negotiations influence the behavior of these returnees and their life options, and also to under-stand the way that identities and senses of belonging are (re)molded once in Portugal. This article thus sets out to answer two overarching questions: (1) what are the impacts of return upon Portuguese emigrant descendant returnees and where does the return itself leave the returnees in the transnational stratum, and in their search for the “self”?; (2) how are social networks (re)negotiated in the post-return taking into consideration tactics of insertion and returnees’ transnational positioning? In order to reach conclusions, the findings presented in this article rely on interviews with 40 Portuguese emigrant descendant returnees from two source countries: Canada and France. This ethnographic fieldwork was carried out between 2008 and 2010, with a second round of follow-up interviews carried out between 2011 and 2013