RETURNIK

noun (Politics) (People and Society) An ÷migr÷ from an East European country who has returned home, especially after a change of political regime there. Etymology: Formed from the verb return and the suffix -nik, on the model of refusenik. History and Usage: This inventive formation gave a new lease of life to the -nik suffix in English during the second half of the eighties, when the media began to take an interest in the growing number of ÷migr÷s from the Soviet Union and other East European countries who wished to return once a more democratic government was in power. The phenomenon of returniks had existed before, however: of the people who successfully emigrated from the Soviet Union, for example, there were always a few who found that their ties to the motherland were so strong that they could not be happy anywhere else and who tried to find some way to return home even without a change of political regime there. The Gross family are Returniks--Russians who emigrated to the West and have now decided to return. They...swapped one of the most prestigious New York addresses, Waterside Plaza in Manhattan, for two dingy rooms which the Grosses, who have three children, share with her [Olga's] mother. Sunday Mail (Brisbane) 17 May 1987, p. 21 Known as the returniks, these natives of Czechoslovakia, Poland, Hungary...are helping manufacture consumer goods and build housing. Time 2 July 1990, p. 48