New Insights on Return Processes & Return Governance

23 November 2022

Brussels

Organisers

United Nations University (UNU) Migration Network

in collaboration with the Brussels School of Governance (VUB), UNU-CRIS, UNU-MERIT, Ghent University and Maastricht University.

Date & Time

Wednesday 23 November 2022; 13:30 – 15:45 (followed by reception)

Location

Brussels School of Governance (BSoG-VUB; Pleinlaan 5, 1050 Brussels; Room Lisbon and Rome [floor -1]/hybrid)

You are cordially invited to a UNU Migration Network research dissemination event on Return Processes and Return Governance. The event will offer an opportunity to discuss the policy findings and implications of two recently completed doctoral projects that focus on return decision-making, return policies, post-return experiences and the role of familial and formal support therein.

Florian Trauner (Director of the Research Centre for Migration, Diversity and Justice, Brussels School of Governance) will open the event. Following the researchers’ presentations (see summaries below), Jean-Pierre Cassarino (Senior Research Fellow, College of Europe) will reflect on what these findings mean for policy and practice, before a broader Q&A discussion moderated by Ine Lietaert, and tea reception, allow for further discussion and networking.

Presca Wanki, Associate Research Fellow, UNU-CRIS

[un]Certainity after return: Unpacking community expectations, familial geopolitics and [in]formal support for Cameroonian returnees.

Migration in Cameroon is often linked to specific expectations towards migrants of sharing accumulated resources. This research investigated how expectations are evaluated after return and how differences in post-return experiences are created, while considering the characteristics of the socio-cultural, economic and political context of Cameroon. Findings will be shared on (1) the expectations of the local community towards returnees; (2) family perspectives towards return; (3) tactics to deal with socio-cultural, economic and political uncertainties after return; (4) the formal support structures available for returnees; and (5) recommendations for policy and practice to facilitate reintegration processes.

Talitha Dubow, Researcher, UNU-MERIT/Maastricht University

Decision-making processes of irregularised migrants over the course of their migration trajectories

This doctoral dissertation offers two case studies on the decision-making of rejected asylum-seekers in the EU. The first examines whether and how the Dutch government’s denial of basic welfare provisions affected the lived experiences and return decision-making of rejected Afghan asylum-seekers in the Netherlands between 2013 and 2014. The second investigates the decision-making of rejected Albanian asylum-seekers who were returned from Germany between 2014 and 2019 and highlights the significance of EU entry bans, opportunities for legal re-entry and labour migration in the EU, as well as the legitimacy that some rejected Albanian asylum-seekers attributed to the return orders they received.