Socio-occupational Paths of Polish and Lithuanian Returning Migrants: Sequence Analysis of Survey Data with the Use of TraMineR for R

The growth and diversity in contemporary return migration have given rise to questions related to migrants’ (re)integration into their society of origin. In particular, a growing set of studies examine the returnees’ labour market situation to understand how time spent living and working abroad affects individuals’ social mobility upon return. The key aim of this paper is to explore the socio-occupational paths of returning migrants. Based on the online survey with Polish and Lithuanian returnees (n = 544) who had spent at least a year in the UK, we aim to identify patterns in the socio-occupational sequences of people experiencing returning migration. Based on sequence analysis carried out in TraMineR (Life Trajectory Miner for R) covering the situation of returning migrants before migration, during migration and upon return, we have distinguished four clusters of sequences: (1) sequences with education, (2) sequences with employment, (3) sequences with unemployment and (4) sequences with self-employment. We compare those clusters in terms of demographic characteristics, as well as migration plans. We also take into consideration skills acquired and transferred throughout migration trajectories. With this typology based on the unique dataset of returning migrants, we supplement existing, primarily qualitative, research on returning migrants’ careers with the sequence analysis based on quantitative data.