Towards a Definition For Returnees' Reintegration Processes in the Context of Rural Ethiopia

Tizazu, Derluyn and Lietaert examine the meaning of successful reintegration in the context of forced return from Saudi Arabia to rural Ethiopia. As such, the target group of this contribution overlaps with the returnees included by Kuschminder and colleagues above, yet focuses on the particular group of people returning to rural areas. Based on an extensive literature review combined with interviews with forced returnees and stakeholders working with this population, the authors highlight the inextricably link between social and economic reintegration and the way these two dimensions can be operationalized with attention for crucial environmental and social factors inherent to the rural geographies and characteristics. As such, the results illustrate the importance of contextualized, etic approaches, without at the same time neglecting the globalized nature of migration processes in its different phases and aspects. This contribution highlights for policy makers that returnees often see their reintegration as holistic and not necessarily in different spheres.