Immediately after Lithuania regained independence in 1991 there were increased attempts of the diasporas 'to come back home'. Expatriates, hyphenated Americans of Lithuanian background, ethnic tourists from America in search of their 'links', and other returnees were faced by the 'transitional' dilemmas of the post-communist Lithuanian realities. Returnees settled in Lithuania, but how much did they identify themselves with native Lithuanians, became "one of us". Were they and are they migrants of nostalgia rather than returnees? The aim of the article is to delineate the profile of the nostalgia-based- model of Lithuanian national identity, shared by Lithuanian transmigrants, in particular, those expatriate refuges and their offspring, who, at the end of World War II, fled the Communist regime and moved to the West. Most of these political émigrés developed a strong moral imperative 'to be of use to Lithuania' which crystallised into a missionary-like identity 'to come back to Lithuania when it will be free of Communism', a complex of identity strategies developed in the diaspora and transplanted in the home country. The problems of in-placement, the re-rooting and re-homing of the transnational, up-rooted and displaced Lithuanian migrants, are the focus of this chapter: the transnational model of Lithuanian identity, transplanted to foreign soil and brought back by the Lithuanian transmigrants. Key questions to be answered are: what is brought back to Lithuania by the returnees in terms of social capital and heritage; what are the shapes of identity among transmigrants in a transitional society; how identities that are brought back from the country of domicile are challenged? To answer these questions, first-hand accounts of the ongoing processes of social and cultural accommodation of individuals of Lithuanian background coming to Lithuania from the diasporas in Northern America, mainly the U.S. and Canada, are used. Categories of returnees, as well as dimensions of return, are pointed out. Potential and actual returnees have been observed and interviewed on the both sides of the Atlantic. During the period of 2002-2005, particular sites of their networking in Vilnius and Chicago, as well as other sites of the Lithuanian diaspora activities, have been explored. The returnees and their offspring were studied along their interest groups and networks showing their diversity in terms of generation, class, cultural background, occupation as well as their ethnic/national identity, as defined by informants themselves. The identity of the Lithuanian transmigrants encompasses strategies of retention of nation-ness in terms of culture, heritage and ethnicity defined in diaspora and transplanted again in the country of departure. The core of the diaspora's commitment to retaining nation-ness is expressed in the sense of duty and mission to retain 'the culture', once challenged by the Soviet regime, with the attendant aim to liberate the country from Communism. Governed by the formula of „how to be a Lithuanian in the free world“, inscribed in the Lithuanian Charter of the 1949, as well as being strongly enculturated into the explicit ethno-nationalism of diaspora life, returnees have brought to post- communist Lithuania a nostalgia-backed missionary identity. Their standard of nation-ness included both the „obligation to return“ to and „to be of use to“ Lithuania. From one point of view, their professional skills, knowledge of civic participation, moral qualities, are all shared in different niches of society including Parliament and the Presidency. From another angle, it is clear that the diaspora idealists, by becoming „missionaries“, were keen to implement their own Lithuanian culture-codifying standards in a country, „devastated by communism“.… [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]