| Sumario: | This paper analyses the return of Andalusian emigrants from Northern European countries to their regions of origin. The aim is to discover the reasons that led to the original emigrations and those that, after several decades and when in or approaching old age, motivated the returns. The factors and relationships involved in migrants' decision-making are discussed at the family and social network levels, and interpreted through the notion of a 'life project'. This reveals that the decisions and plans to return were to an extent linked to the original emigration decision and grounded in individual and family behaviour. The material and socio-demographic contexts of the original emigration from rural Andalusia (economic hardship, high fertility and large families, and family households as units of production) facilitated selective emigration, with many of the emigrants having characteristics of social exclusion. At the destinations, the migrants developed a distinctive social structure, based on work and family relationships, which enabled integration and the forging of ties with the host society. When the emigrants reached the end of their working lives, many of the same personal and social factors reappeared and conditioned the decision-making process to return.
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