Seen as the displacement process of individuals and collectivities in the physical and social space, migration phenomena meet in the "return" its fundamental instrumental principle. However, this operative principle develops two decisive aspects for the nature and viability of the migratory projects in any historical-social context: on the one side, the symbolic aspect that ascertains the "circularity" wanted in the human displacements; and on the other, the formal aspect of the social networks relational patterns that perform structurally the "circularity." In this work, we intend to analyze the migratory phenomenon starting from the Social Network Analysis (SNA) applied to four empiric systems of migration as case studies. This way, we hope to contribute to the theoretical-methodological development of the network analysis in the contemporary social sciences.
Migration; "Return; Circularity; Social Network Analysis; Relational sociology
