Migrants as homo affectus: How emotion shapes return migration among Iranians

This article examines the emotional dimension of return migration by introducing the concept of homo affectus as an analytical lens that foregrounds the role of emotion in shaping migration patterns. Drawing on in-depth, semi-structured interviews with fifteen Iranian return migrants, this study complements the dominant view of return as a primarily rational, economically driven decision by demonstrating that return is also deeply embedded in emotional landscapes of belonging, responsibility, and care. Returnees framed their return migration as an affective homecoming, expressing it through the culturally meaningful Persian notion of risheh (roots). This homecoming was not merely a return to a geographically bounded nation-state but to a source of meaning rooted in attachment to people, place, and identity. The findings call for a rethinking of three widely held assumptions in return migration scholarship: (1) that return is primarily tied to life-course stages; (2) that parents hesitate to return for the sake of their children's future; and (3) that women are less likely to return due to gender-based constraints. Across life stages, participants navigated return through emotional ties that often outweighed seemingly rational calculations. Parents returned to preserve their children's cultural identity while safeguarding future mobility through foreign citizenship. Women framed their return not as disempowerment, but as a hopeful act of social defiance and civic engagement. This study underscores the epistemological significance of emotion in migration analysis and offers a more nuanced understanding of return as both deeply personal and socially meaningful. • Introduces homo affectus as a framework to centre emotion in migration decisions. • Challenges economic models by emphasizing emotional drivers of migration. • Shows return as rooted in emotional terrains of belonging, responsibility, and care. • Finds parents return to preserve cultural identity while securing future mobility. • Finds women's return as a hopeful act of social defiance and civic engagement.