No strangers to crossing the kala pani, or black sea, Indians have built communities around the world. Though many Indians have been in circulation between Africa, the Middle East, and the Caribbean for centuries, following independence from Britain in 1947 the pace of emigration intensified as Indians poured out of the country towards Western countries such as the United States (Bhatt and Iyer 2013; Jensen 1988; Leonard 1997). However, a new pattern of migration has emerged in recent years: increasing numbers of Indians are returning to India after long spells abroad. While this trend is largely attributed to the combination of burgeoning opportunities in the Indian economy and stagnating employment in the United States, the decision to return is not a strictly economic one for many Indians, particularly among highly educated ‘knowledge workers’ in the global information technology (IT) industry. These workers often endure years of uncertainty on temporary work permits in the United States to have the chance to amass prized educational, social and economic capital through their association with American IT companies. At the same time, these skills and networks make them particularly valuable to India-based branches of multinationals and Indian companies as potential ‘returnees.’

While several recent studies (Chacko 2007; Saxenian 2005; Wadhwa 2009a+b; Wadhwa et al. 2007) have examined the factors that prompt return migration to India and the experience of returnees or repatriates (‘repats’), in this chapter I consider how return migration is a gendered phenomenon that impacts not only workers, but the family members who also travel abroad and back to India as part of transnational labour flows.