Pre-pandemic mobility: uncoupling gendered return migration and COVID-19 in Zimbabwe

COVID-19 brought return migration into sharp focus with a clear causal link being established between the pandemic and return migration. Although COVID-19-induced return migration cannot be downplayed, it is important to ensure that the link between the pandemic and return migration does not obscure pre-pandemic gendered reasons for return migration. Focusing on reasons for return migration deriving from migrants’ gendered positioning in destination countries and Zimbabwe, this chapter strikes a cautionary note on covidization of return migration. It argues that return before the migration goals are met has been going on before the pandemic. The chapter draws from qualitative research with return migrants to Zimbabwe conducted in 2017 demonstrating pre-pandemic return migration even when the factors that led to migration had not ceased to exist. Outside COVID-19, return migration occurs due to failure to achieve the migration goals and post-migration realization that the gendered costs of migration outweigh its benefits.