Here is a new working paper that provides an overview of Assisted Voluntary Return from Europe. Assisted Voluntary Return (AVR) is a central component of European Union (EU) member states migration management policies and has grown in popularity over the past two decades. At present, all EU member states have active AVR programmes, however, despite the growing prevalence of these programmes there has been a dearth of research and evaluation on AVR. In addition, a common goal of these AVR … [Read more...]
Coming Soon: Reintegration Strategies
I am happy to announce that my book 'Reintegration Strategies' is expected to be published by Springer in September 2017. This book critically examines and theorizes the process of how return migrants reintegrate into their countries of origin. The result is a new methodology for understanding the experiences of return migrants, or their 'reintegration strategies'. This approach demonstrates that reintegration strategies differ by type of return migrant, leading to variations in how far they are … [Read more...]
Presentation at IOM Launch Event in Athens on Understanding Safe and Sustainable Return
On 18th October I had the pleasure to return to Athens to present in a launch event of IOMs Global Migration and Data Analysis Centre (GMDAC) on a paper commissioned on 'Understanding Safe and Sustainable Return'. In the presentation I discussed the current context of return from Europe, how to define and measure sustainable return, research gaps and recommendations for further research. The report is in progress and will be posted soon. … [Read more...]
European Migration Network (EMN) Austria National Conference on Irregular Migration and Return in the EU and Austria
On 21 September, I gave an introductory presentation at the EMN Austria National Conference on Irregular Migration and Return in the EU and Austria. The conference occurred amidst further flows of migrants and refugees entering Austria’s southern borders. As a country of only eight million, the country is now anticipating flows of up to 90,000 asylum seekers this year. The conference provided a great venue for debate and discussion on current irregular migration and return policies in … [Read more...]
Return and Reintegration of Migrants: IOM Report Launch
On 16 January 2015, IOM hosted a roundtable event to the launch report Comparative Research on Assisted Voluntary Return and Reintegration. Prof. Khalid Koser and I had been working on this project for the previous year, which looked at three primary objectives of: 1) Understanding the decision to return 2) Developing a method to define and measure sustainable return 3) Examining the factors that determine sustainable return Further event details and the report are available … [Read more...]