Paper short abstract:

This paper probes the imaginaries and emotions of return, highlighting the affective economies in play in the anticipation and awaiting of such journeys. It is informed by the author's ongoing fieldwork among Latin Americans presently in Spain.

Paper long abstract:

Building upon recent literature which foregrounds the moral, emotional, and embodied aspects of migration experiences, this paper locates value in the imaginaries and emotions—including hope, happiness, and hardship—evoked by the prospect of return. By way of such inquiry, it highlights the multifarious affective economies in play in the period leading up to an anticipated return journey, interrogating the emotions, moral valences, and expectations aroused by long-awaited and desired return. It asks: whereas migrant journeys, frequently hallmarked as 'dreams', are often construed as vehicles which lead to some future happiness, how are return journeys affectively rendered? Do migrants who participate in state-assisted programs 'dream' of or dread return? Importantly, and further to critical feminist gains in migration research, this paper also asks how the emotional and moral responses provoked by the potential for return are refracted along lines of gender, race, and class. The reflections it offers is informed by the author's ongoing fieldwork among Latin Americans in Spain, where she is presently working on a doctoral dissertation project on migrant aspirations, moralities, and subjectivities, particularly as they relate to return.