On May 6, 2010 Vahram Gharakhanyan presented the main findings of his research “The Number and Reintegration of Armenian Migrants Returned to Homeland from the USA: 1991-2008” conducted within CRRC-Armenia Research Fellowship Program.

Mr. Gharakhanyan investigated the number and trends of immigration by sex and age groups, the main reasons that compelled the immigrants from Armenia in the USA to return to home country, and the problems the returnees encountered during their reintegration period in Armenia. The driving forces of return migration is the failure and disintegration in receiving countries, successful termination of migration experience (especially labor) planned by a migrant prior to his/her departure from the homeland, retirement in receiving countries because of old age and/or invalidity, as well as, compulsory removal and/or deportation from receiving countries.

Both quantitative and qualitative data has been gathered to implement the study. In particular, face-to-face and in-depth interviews were conducted with the migrants returned from the USA. Additionally, special questionnaires have been developed and employed to collect the necessary data about the returnees. The sampling, rather the detection of the participants has been taken through the “snow-ball” method.

The presentation has gathered professionals in the migration sphere including representatives from State Migration Service, the US Embassy, Caritas-Armenia, Heifer-Armenia, “Advanced Social Technologies”, and Subcommittee of Diaspora, and it was followed by an engaging Q&A session.

The research paper (~600 KB, PDF) is available for download at CRRC-Armenia website here.