Vayeshev Ya'akov be'eretz megurei aviv be'eretz K'na'an - Yaakov settled in the land of his father's residence, in the land of Kenaan

The Torah uses the term vayeshev, i.e. permanent residence, instead of vayagar "he sojourned [as a stranger]" in order to create a parallel with Esav who had been described as securely settled in the mountains of Seir in 36:8.  Esav was so described as we were told about the kings, etc., which he established in his country starting at that time.  His descendants remained on the same soil never to migrate again.  The Torah had to contrast this with the fact that Yaakov took undisputed possession of a part of the (subsequent) land of Yisrael for the first time.  Such possession is here described by the words vayashev.  His tenure is contrasted with that of either Avraham or Yitzchak, who a) lived there as nomads b) as individuals, not having produced a clan of 70 people plus their in-laws as had Yaakov.  At the same time the Torah also refers to the temporary status of the patriarchs in the land of Kena'an where all the patriarchs were referred to as only sojourning in that land (Shemot 6:4).  The fact is that whereas Avraham had been a first generation immigrant, both Yitzchak's mother and Yaakov's mother as well as the mothers of all his children had been born outside the Holy Land thus making their children "strangers," at least technically.

According to Midrash Tanchuma 1 on this Parsha, examination of the occurrence of the word vayashev throughout the Torah will reveal that this term is always used when some unhappy event was associated with such "settlement."  The following examples illustrate the point:

Shemot 32:6 - writes, "the people settled down to eat and to drink and they arose to make sport [worship the golden calf]."  On that day three thousand of the people were slain on account of this sin.

Bereishit 37:25 - reports that after throwing Yosef into the pit, "when the brothers had settled down to eat their meal they raised their eyes and here a caravan of Yishmaelim arrived,.... and they sold Yosef to the Yishmaelim."

1Melachim 5:5 writes, "when Yehudah and Yisrael had settled safely,... G-d made an adversary against Shlomo" (11:14) - as a punishment for transgressing certain commands in the Torah. 

BaMidbar 25:1 writes, "when the Yisraelim settled down at a place called Shittim, the people started debasing themselves by whoring" - with the Mo'avi women which resulted in G-d killing 24,000 of them.

In this instance too, Yaakov's "settling" in the land of Kenaan had in its wake his traumatic experience of the loss of Yosef.