This presentation aims at discussing the results of a recent national-level survey and local fieldworks that focused (among other topics) on the motivations and future plans of international returnees to Romania who decided to leave behind their tumultuous urban context (both at home and abroad) and to move instead in more or less remote villages in different regions in Romania. While Romania used to be a sending country – and it still is – in recent years we can observe at one hand a reversed process (those who left many years ago return to their country of origin), and on the other hand, a new immigration, that aims at replacing the missing work force (mostly in urban areas), and more recently, the acceptance of refugees. These processes led to local transformations in rural areas and the re-composition of local labor, while there is still observable the shrinkage and depopulation of certain rural regions. Our aim is also to launch a discussion whether these new mobility processes can be interpreted in rural-urban dichotomy. Also, we will reflect on the ethnic dimension of the data, discussing whether these new phenomena reinforce existing ethnic and social inequalities or on the contrary, create new opportunities to families that are marginalized by the majority society.