Research Study #3 - Health and Reintegration. Returning to Space but not to Time: A Life Course Approach to Migrants’ Health, Continuity of Care and Impact on Reintegration Outcomes

This study was the result of a collaboration between the EU-IOM Knowledge Management Hub (KMH), with the financial support of the European Union (EU), in collaboration with Samuel Hall and the African Centre for Migration and Society at the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa.

The main aim of this research was to explore the links between health needs, access to care and sustainable reintegration of returnees. Within this, there were four main objectives that link the returnees’ individual health-related needs (including with regards to mental health) with the capacities and infrastructures for health services in the external environment, to learn from existing practices and recommend how to improve the operationalization and standards on health provision in reintegration settings across countries of origin:
 

• Identify returnees’ health conditions and health related needs

• Analyse the external environment’s influence on reintegration outcomes

• Identify good practices for the provision of short- and long-term reintegration support

• Formulate programmatic and policy recommendations to foster sustainable reintegration

The study followed a mixed methods approach, conducted between March and July 2022, in six selected countries (Brazil, Ethiopia, the Gambia, Georgia, Pakistan and Senegal).