Policy and Legislation

This report provides an update to a policy brief issued in May 2012, on the situation of migrants who returned to their home countries as a result of the conflict in Libya in 2011. Now two years after mass returns began, the aftermath of the crisis continues to reverberate in countries across Northern and Western Africa as well as beyond, in Asia. To this...

This blog post addresses the implementation of Objective 21 in line with international human rights law. States pledge to fulfil the commitments laid down in the GCM in a manner consistent with their obligations under international law (§41). Further, the compact is based on international human rights law and ‘rests’ on the international human rights...

Objective 21 of the Final Draft of the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (GCM) addresses the process of expulsion, which, in the GCM, comprises three measures, notably return, readmission, and reintegration. Regarding return, states commit to facilitate safe and dignified return and to guarantee due process, individual assessment, and...

A partir da última década do século passado, a migração internacional surgiu como tema de grande importância para o Brasil e para Portugal. Enquanto o primeiro passou a ser um país de emigração o segundo tornou-se um dos países de destino mais importante da Europa. Como outros coletivos de imigrantes que buscam a Portugal, os brasileiros, nos últimos anos...

The research deals with the socio-economic reintegration of Ethiopian women return migrants from Arabian Gulf countries. It examines the lived experiences of women who migrate to these countries and then return to their home country. How female returnees make sense of migration-related trauma, how migration settings impact on the migration as well as the...

The Policy Note offers ECRE’s analysis of European Practices in the area of return including “voluntary departures” and assisted return, with its recommendations to the EU.

This document provides guidance for state authorities on the design and implementation of return procedures that are child rights compliant. In particular, it sets out concrete measures necessary to ensure respect for the rights of every child, including children in families, when implementing return legislation and policy in Europe, in line with...

The return and reintegration of migrant workers back to their home countries marks the end of their migration cycle. While extensive work has been done on ensuring effective migration laws and policies, pre-departure training, and research on working conditions when abroad, there is little work done around the return and reintegration of migrants. This phase...

The global study, Invisible Women: Gendered Dimensions of Return, Reintegration and Rehabilitation, conducted in partnership with the International Civil Society Action Network, responds to a pressing need for action-oriented research that improves our understanding of women’s roles in reintegration and rehabilitation processes, and the work of women-led...

Around the world, nearly 50 million children have migrated across borders or been forcibly displaced. This report presents – for the first time – comprehensive, global data about these children – where they are born, where they move and some of the dangers they face along the way. The report sheds light on the truly global nature of childhood migration and...

This guidance note provides ten core principles that practitioners can follow when aiming to integrate livelihoods and protection programming in urban humanitarian response, with a focus on supporting economic outcomes for beneficiaries. Key actions in programme design, illustrative performance indicators, notes on sustainability, and brief case examples are...

Certain immigrant-receiving countries have for decades employed policies to encourage unauthorized immigrants to return to their home countries without the cost, legal barriers, and political obstacles of removals or forced returns. Noncoercive, pay-to-go, voluntary, assisted voluntary, and nonforced returns generally can offer paid travel and/or other...

The report offers a range of recommendations to governments and others, including: Prepare migrants for reintegration prior to their return, even before deportation; issue primary ID documents from abroad or upon reception; and ensure reintegration services tap into returning migrants' cultural roots. Improving reception and reintegration services represents...

In addition to analyzing the promise of and barriers to closer cooperation, this brief also outlines what needs to be done to reconcile the differing goals and approaches at the heart of the development and migration-management fields. If this can be done, the authors conclude, greater collaboration could add value in a number of areas of common interest...

This training manual – developed by ILO and UNICEF under the UN Global Initiative to Fight Human Trafficking – seeks to aid governments, workers, employers, international, and non-governmental organizations that combat trafficking in children for labour, sexual and other exploitation.

This handbook presents the determinants of migrant vulnerability (DOMV) model for analyzing and responding to migrant vulnerability. The DOMV model is specifically designed to address the protection and assistance needs of a specific subset of migrants: those who have experienced or are vulnerable to violence, exploitation, and abuse before, during or after...

This Global Compact presents a non-legally binding, cooperative framework that builds on the commitments agreed upon by Member States in the New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants. It fosters international cooperation among all relevant actors on migration, acknowledging that no State can address migration alone, and upholds the sovereignty of States...

The relationship between migration and development is a key topic for research and policy. Earlier pessimistic perspectives focused on the threat to development of poorer countries through the loss of human resources. Recently, a more optimistic view has been advanced by northern governments and international agencies. This is based on the idea that...

Post-conflict return is a highly politically charged process in a number of contexts, both for returnees and those who did not migrate or flee, leading many observers to question the notion of an unproblematic return “home”.Specifically, doubts remain both about the conditions and voluntariness of return, the ability of individual returnees to reintegrate in...

Rejected asylum seekers often resist the legal obligation to return. Consequently, European policy makers tasked with migration managament have turned to so-called ‘Assisted Voluntary Return and Reintegration programmes’ (AVRRs) to incentivize return to and support reintegration in the country of origin. Such programmes are described as less politically...