In recent years, there has been an increase in human mobility worldwide due to factors such as the search for better opportunities abroad, natural and man-made crises, environmental degradation and the increased circulation of information because of better technology. Higher flows of migration have also been accompanied by higher volumes of migrants returning to their countries of origin. Motivations for returning home range from the desire to reunite with families, lack of legal status, changed conditions in either host countries or countries of origin, to a sense of achievement of the migration experience and the willingness to start a new life back home, among others. Return is often followed by a process of re-inclusion or re-incorporation of migrants into their society. This process is usually referred to as “reintegration”.
While return and reintegration can happen spontaneously, without the assistance of external actors, humanitarian and development stakeholders increasingly recognize that reintegration is a complex, multidimensional phenomenon that requires a holistic and intentional response.
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Key Messages
- Return migration takes place in a number of ways and under different conditions, which can create challenges and opportunities for the reintegration process.
- Sustainable reintegration is achieved when returnees have reached levels of economic self-sufficiency, social stability, and psychosocial well-being that make their further migration decisions a matter of choice, rather than necessity.
- IOM’s integrated approach to reintegration recognizes that the complex process of reintegration requires a holistic and a needs-based response at the individual, community and structural levels.
- Returnees, their families and their communities should be supported to drive and take ownership of the reintegration process, through active participation and empowerment.
- Reintegration programmes should be developed, implemented and adapted using continuous assessment and learning to understand the wider environment and build on existing initiatives, programmes or services.
- Establishing strong partnerships with key stakeholders results in more efficient and sustainable reintegration processes.
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Key Messages
- Individual assistance using the case management approach relies on building an open and trusting relationship with returnees and helping them drive their own reintegration process and work through the challenges they are facing.
- Identifying and responding to returnee vulnerabilities is the first priority because this can reduce risk, help mitigate further harm to returnees and present an opportunity for offering tailored assistance.
- Returnees have needs, but they also have capacities and resources. Understanding these from the beginning of the reintegration process helps case managers tailor individual assistance so that it contributes to sustainable reintegration.
- Creating a plan for reintegration is a joint process. The case manager should always give returnees a realistic view of available assistance and help them plan for the point at which assistance will come to an end.
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Key Messages
- The definition of community is context-specific and depends on sociocultural, economic and political conditions as well as migration trends.
- Reintegration assistance at the community level uses participatory methods to create local ownership of the reintegration process for the benefit of both returnees and the community.
- Community-based reintegration projects can use varying approaches: collective returnee projects, new community-based projects or inclusion of returnees into existing community-based projects.
- Empowering returnees to share their experiences with return communities and build social networks can increase their resilience and improve sustainability of reintegration.
- Working with communities to combat stigmatization and improve services is crucial to sustainability.
- Comprehensive profiles of high-return communities can help identify local needs and dynamics and build on existing initiatives.
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Key Messages
- Mainstreaming reintegration considerations into relevant development and sectoral policies and strategies at the national and local levels can provide wider institutional support for reintegration processes and identify synergies with other sectors.
- Building capacity and strengthening systems at the structural level allows for greater ownership, sustainability and impact of reintegration programming at the individual and community levels.
- Engagement and coordination of relevant actors is necessary for increasing effectiveness of reintegration initiatives. This coordination should strategically engage all involved actors in the host country and the country of origin.
- Setting up clear and coherent international cooperation systems helps all actors understand their role. It facilitates the standardization of processes and procedures for the benefit of returnees, their communities and their countries of origin.
Go to Module 4
Key Messages
- Start planning early in the programme design phase for monitoring and evaluation by developing a theory of change that describes how activities lead to desired results and helps in setting indicators to check progress and assumptions.
- Integrating monitoring into programme activities and mechanisms is a cornerstone of the collection of accurate and timely data of the programming.
- Findings from monitoring and evaluation processes must be institutionalized and made useable by those who need them to foster learning and improve the impact of future programming.
Go to Module 5
Key Messages
- The complex, multidimensional process of reintegration requires a holistic perspective to
address the needs of returnee children and families.
- The integrated approach to reintegration focuses on the economic, social and psychosocial
dimensions while responding to the needs of individual returnees, the families and communities
they return to, and the structural factors that regulate them.
- A child rights approach to reintegration begins with a return decision arrived at in line with the
child’s best interests. Children who are returning as part of a family unit should be treated as
individual rights holders, including applying the ‘best interests’ principle at all times. While forced
returns are never assessed to be in a child’s best interests, they still require child protection and
social welfare authorities to identify and provide reintegration assistance to returnee children
and families in their communities of origin.
- Sustainable reintegration is reinforced by supporting pre-departure planning where possible,
and promoting cross-border cooperation between child protection, social welfare, immigration
and other authorities.
Go to Module 6