Portuguese-Canadian and Portuguese-French second-generation migrant women narrate ？return？ to Portugal

this paper is based on the narratives of ten second-generation portuguese-canadian and portuguese-french women (five from each group) who have ‘returned’ to take up residency in portugal. as a theoretical point of analysis, i look at issues of integration and belonging as idealised in the pre-return and carried out in the post return. empirically, derived from ethnographic fieldwork carried out in mainland portugal from june, 2008 to february, 2010, the paper takes these carefully selected female voices to show subtleties and ambiguities relevant to feelings of belonging and acceptance upon return to the ancestral homeland, one that may not be what was original preconceived.