marrying a foreign national while maintaining strong ties with their family and country of origin. The dreaded mass return, because of the predictable accommodation difficulties and the determination to preserve their lives and estate, became therefore the focus of heated diplomatic discussions and correspondence between Switzerland and the countries involved. The present contribution deals initially with the situation of Swiss citizens in the Italian context, drawing attention to the agreements designed to safeguard and as far as possible shore up their repatriation; secondly, the paper examines the reception facilities built in Switzerland.
Frédéric Spagnoli, Return migrations to the Trentino.
An overview and the case of the “French”
This article deals with return migrations to the Trentino, an Alpine province in
the North-East of Italy. The first part provides an overview of this phenomenon, starting from Ancien-Régime temporary migration trends to the steadily
growing return migration of migrants’ descendants. In the second part, the
focus shifts to the case of Trentino migrants and their descendants in France.
The strength of the French assimilation and integration model, the difficult
situation of Italy at the time of migration (1920-1960) partly explain the rapid adaptation to the French way of life and the low number of returns. The
case of the so-called francesi (“the French”) contrasts with other migration
countries; and a comparative analysis could cast new light on a topic that has
so far received little attention.
Anselm Zurfluh, Migrations. The influence of expatriates of old
From time immemorial, men have travelled and so carried with them not only
their chattel but also, perhaps above all, ideas. This is the case of emigrants, who
take with them knowledge and skills to their new workplace. It is even more
so with back-migrants, namely those who return to their home country after a
more or less long absence. It is hard to tell to what extent what they experienced
in the “foreign country” impacts on what they experience back at home. It is
equally hard to discern if single migrants who come back from abroad exert
any genuine influence on their local social groups. Indeed, migrations are about
