The role of social networks in the linguistic and cultural integration and reintegration of Japanese return migrants

Return migration is a population movement where people return to their country of origin after a period of time living in another country. This study explores the linguistic and cultural roles that social networks play in return migration. Six Japanese women who stayed in the United States for less than five years and who have since returned to Japan within the last 12-18 months filled out questionnaires and participated in ethnographic interviews. An analysis of their stories suggests that due to their cyclical migration pattern, the structures and functions of the social networks for return migrants were different from those studied previously for immigrant groups. The return migrants established temporary interactive networks that were short-term, highly valued with strong ties and were accessed only for the duration of the return migrants' stay in the host culture. The study also indicated that due to the limited time spent in the host culture, the findings from the Japanese return migrants revealed that a) linguistic and cultural maintenance is not always the motivating factor for adults to establish an L1 social network; b) membership into an L1 social network is not always automatic; c) the need to have an L1 social network in the host culture is related to the values and norms of the home culture because it helps to enforce the return migrants' self-identity as Japanese; and d) L2 social networks in the host culture that are comprised of international members do not facilitate the development of a bilingual/bicultural identity. In terms of language proficiency, this study discovered that for the Japanese return migrants, self-perception of low L2 proficiency led the return migrants to establish alternative L2 temporary social networks of international speakers of English. The international bilingual social network was not strengthened by cultural, racial, or ethnical factors but by the common trait that English was their second language. The findings confirm the importance of distinguishing social networks of return migrants and offer a challenge to reevaluate and redefine social networks in order to broaden the social network framework to include the linguistic and cultural complexity of return migrants.