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Paper short abstract

This presentation explores Ecuadorian return migrants’ moral reasonings and dilemmas, shaped by their migratory experiences, concerning their present lives, the ‘good’ life, and their aspirations for social, spatial, and existential mobility.

Paper long abstract

In this presentation, I examine the trajectories and long-term life projects of Ecuadorian migrants who migrated to Spain at the turn of the century and came back to Ecuador following the 2008 Spanish financial crisis. For many, return proved largely disappointing, as their country did not correspond to their expectations. Since the late 2010s, Ecuador has experienced yet another economic recession and political uncertainty, prompting many of my returnee research participants to reassess what counts as a ‘good’ life, namely a life in which they can somehow flourish.

As a result of their moral deliberations on what constitutes a ‘good’ life and where it may be achieved (which context makes which kind of life possible), some returnees wish to remigrate to Spain, while others envisage remaining in Ecuador, notably narrowing down their aspirations for social mobility. In this presentation, I ask: How have returnees’ past migratory experiences and current moral dilemmas shaped their experience of the present time in Ecuador, their hopes, and their envisionings of the future, whether there or elsewhere?

By examining how returnees articulate imaginings of the past, the present, and the future, I show that differences in how and where they envision a better future are shaped by their particular ways of articulating their aspirations for social, spatial, and existential mobility in their moral reasonings. These reasonings have an impact on my research participants’ actions and their sense of either existential immobility or of moving ‘forward’.