Democratic Decline and Return Migration: What Motivates Highly‐Skilled Voluntary Return to Post‐2016 Turkey?

ABSTRACT Migration scholars often present democratic decline as an emigration driver. This effect is more pronounced among highly‐skilled citizens who have the resources and capability to settle abroad. Yet, not much attention has been paid to why highly‐skilled emigrants would opt to return to their autocratizing countries, even if they are concerned about the political path the country has taken. This article provides answers to this puzzle through 41 semi‐structured interviews with highly‐skilled Turkish citizens who were born and raised in Turkey and who, after living abroad, voluntarily returned after 2016, when Turkey's autocratization reached its peak. In line with the existing literature, it finds that socio‐economic and affective reasons play an important role in shaping return decisions. However, as a novel contribution to the literature, it finds that autocratization paradoxically acts as a motivating factor for some migrants who want to move back to contribute to the fight for democratisation. Building on this, the article conceptualises “return migration as voice” (a la Hirschman), a new analytical lens to approach highly‐skilled migration flows in autocratizing countries.