Homecoming tendencies: The art of preserving one's existence in places of origin

Abstract

Purpose: In the context of international human mobility and common personal life transformations, this article focuses on the impact of such transformations on emotional attachment to places of origin. Design/methodology/approach: A combination of phenomenological interviews with 13 Latin American migrants living in Belgium, and poetry composition by the author. Findings - Drawing on this empirical work, the article illustrates (i) how, after many years of successful international mobility, some migrants still experience, occasionally and with different intensities, a desire to return home: homecoming tendencies; and (ii) how consumptionrelated activities support consumers in nourishing these personal returning tendencies, therefore enabling them to avoid disappearing from view in the territories from which they departed. Originality/value: The notion of homecoming tendencies contrasts with that of home maintenance, by demonstrating how preserving one's home in departure lands is also a matter of caring, commitment, and contributing back home. Such gestures are inextricably linked with consumption-related activities such as housing decisions, the adoption and export of cultural ideas, traveling, working, celebrating, all in departure contexts. These activities often involve current inhabitants of those territories, such as local designers, constructors, tourism services providers, colleagues, students, and family members. © 2012 by Emerald Group Publishing Limited.