Knowledge Bite #3 - Insights from the Pilot Action on Voluntary Return and Sustainable, Community-Based Reintegration

This third Knowledge Bite explores the reintegration outcomes and satisfaction levels of migrants assisted to return from South Africa to Mozambique and Malawi under the Pilot Action on Voluntary Return and Sustainable, Community-Based Reintegration funded by the European Union and implemented by IOM. It analyses different reintegration outcomes between the two countries of origin and factors influencing them, including demographic characteristics and types of reintegration assistance received.

The results of the statistical analysis suggest that satisfaction levels with the reintegration assistance received were lower in Mozambique than in Malawi, although similar levels of reintegration sustainability were achieved by returnees in both countries. Moreover, in Mozambique female returnees had overall higher levels of satisfaction and better reintegration outcomes across all dimensions than males, whereas in Malawi it was the reverse. While the composite reintegration sustainability scores between the two countries were similar, looking at the different dimensions reveals more important disparities in reintegration outcomes. Returnees to Mozambique achieved better scores in the economic and in the psychosocial dimensions, whereas returnees to Malawi achieved more sustainable reintegration outcomes in the social dimension.