Return migration and reintegration challenges: lived experience of expert returnees via Iranian universities

With the expansion and diversification of the process of international displacement as a factor affecting the national development of countries, the arena of migration studies needs to be reconsidered. The rising trend of external migration in recent years has been identified as one of the challenges in the policy area and requires comprehensive pathology. This study was conducted to understand and analyze the lived experience of returning specialists from the integration process in Iranian higher education.This research is trying to show what capacities encourage them to stay in the country and serve in the institution and how higher education as the most important area of recruitment does, address the human capital of returning migrants.  A qualitative research method was chosen for this study. Data collection was based on 65 semi-structured interviews with specialists returning to the country with doctoral degrees and higher. In order to provide a comprehensive projection of policymaking, 12 specialized interviews were conducted with the academic department chairs and related authorities in the public and private sectors. The questions of the Scientific Committee on Approval of the Faculty, approved by the Ministry of Science, Research and Technology to understand the challenges of returning migrants were also analyzed. It seems that the approach of the higher education institution to the promotion of the human capital of returning specialists is in a limited and short-term format and the long-term integration within the process of recruitment faces many challenges  such as predominance of technical view over educational system,  abandoned of the humanities, incompatibility of the specialty and skills of returning migrants with the stated needs of the country's universities, the quantity centered university evaluation system, the inadequate distribution of resources, the lack of infrastructure needed to achieve the immigrant expertise, the loss of academic support networks, and different standard of  making resume  at home and abroad.