2.2.1 Vulnerability assessment

All returnees should undergo a vulnerability assessment, ideally before departure and again upon arrival in the country of origin (see Step 4, above). 

Individual and household-level vulnerabilities must be identified early to determine whether they could prevent participation in the reintegration process. Early identification of vulnerability also helps staff prepare appropriate protective and preventive measures and is crucial for creating an effective reintegration plan.

The Rapid Vulnerability Assessment screening form and the Migrant Vulnerable to Violence, Exploitation and Abuse screening form are tools that should be used prior to travel and again when returnees arrive in their country of origin. They will soon be available online. These assessments should be carried out by trained staff. The full screening assesses all potential sources of vulnerabilities for the individual migrant and within families.

Some vulnerabilities require direct intervention to address immediate needs before and after arrival. Adults who are found to be at risk of intimate partner or other types of violence, may need assistance with protection and safety measures. Other vulnerability factors require longer-term responses that should be included in the migrant’s reintegration plan (for example, ensuring that chronic medical conditions are attended to). The results of vulnerability assessments should be provided to staff in the country of origin prior to a migrant’s travel only if the migrant consents to this.

Health vulnerability considerations

A basic health assessment or, at a minimum, screening for specific health needs, should be undertaken as part of the vulnerability assessment for all returnees before departure. If needed and the migrant consents, physical assessments should follow. For migrants with health needs, case managers need to be alerted to the fact that there is a health vulnerability. There needs to be comprehensive knowledge of available health services in the country of origin to enable the development of a transition plan before a returnee travels. This helps determine, for example, if a migrant can stay on the same medication or treatment regime (especially for mental health and autoimmune disorders) in the country of origin.

In contexts where health needs (for example, diagnostics, physicians, medication) for chronic health conditions (for example asthma, renal disease, diabetes, HIV) cannot be met in the country of origin, relocation needs to be considered in collaboration with health service providers in both the host country and the country of origin. The options all involve extensive counselling and include:

1. Not to return. Return should not take place if the returnee is receiving life-saving or life-prolonging treatment in the host country and he or she will be unable to receive such treatment in the country of  origin. Patients may still want to return under these circumstances. However, this should not be facilitated if the absence of critical services (for example, dialysis) will result in the death of the returnee.
2. Continue with return. The patient may be in a terminal stage and would rather obtain less sophisticated palliative care with their family and loved ones than stay alone in a more resourced hospital. When care in the country of origin is available, but limited, extra effort should be made to help the returnee access this care.
3. Relocation to another area. This is not always possible, but should be explored if the option exists.

Guidance to case managers for these situations is complex and decisions should therefore focus on collaborating with subject matter experts, trusted colleagues and, most importantly, the returnees.

Continuity of care must be prioritized when working with migrants in vulnerable situations, especially when it comes to health needs. The returnee should be alerted to any changes in medication or treatment regimens, and these must only occur with the returnee’s full participation and consent.

2.2.2 Risk Assessment

If returnees are identified as vulnerable, case managers should carry out a risk assessment and put in place an individualized security plan. Guidance on how to do this is found in the Handbook on Protection and Assistance to Migrants Vulnerable to Violence, Exploitation and Abuse.

2.2.3 Family assessment

Family members can play an important role in a migrant’s decision-making process. An assessment of a returnee’s family situation, especially for returnees who are considered vulnerable, can provide valuable insight into factors that could support – or hinder – the returnee’s successful reintegration. This is also called “household assessment”. For more information on this type of assessment, see the tools provided as part of the IOM Handbook on Direct Assistance for Victims of Trafficking (2007) and IOM’s Handbook on Protection and Assistance to Migrants Vulnerable to Violence, Exploitation and Abuse (2019).

2.2.4 Skills assessment

A skills assessment should precede the development of the reintegration plan. Gathering information on a returnee’s skills, education and aspirations is important for:

• Tailoring reintegration support, especially economic assistance;
• Recognizing and addressing any potential mismatch between a returnee’s existing skills, training and the skills demand in the country of origin;
• Helping the returnee feel that reintegration assistance is building on their specific needs and strengths and that they have a chance of succeeding; and
• Creating an element of trust and encouraging ownership in the reintegration process.

The figure below outlines the steps that can be taken to assess returnees’ skills.

There are several tools available to help facilitate an individual skills’ assessment such as:

• EU Skills Profile Tool for Third-Country Nationals, intended for use by organizations offering assistance to third-country nationals for labour market integration, with a configuration feature to allow organizations to create their own tailor-made questionnaire;
• Skills Health Check (United Kingdom), which identifies skills and qualifications of jobseekers in order to help returnees steer their career plans;
• UNESCO International Standard Classification of Education. 

Skills or competency tests assess beneficiaries’ specific skills irrespective of how and where they were acquired. Skills may have been gained through means that include any combination of formal or informal training and education, work or general life experience.

Case managers can refer returnees to skills’ tests if one or more of the following facilities are present in the country of origin and are willing to cooperate within the referral framework of the reintegration programme:

• Institutes for the Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) provides assessment and certification that proves a person’s competency, based on occupational standards, regardless of how these competencies were acquired. RPL is important for self-employed people looking for jobs, workers seeking career progression, workers in the informal economy wanting to shift to formal jobs and practitioners wanting to enter an educational pathway. RPL is very important in the context of return migration, as it allows workers to have the skills they may have acquired abroad recognized in their country of origin.
• General skills’ testing facilities include those provided by TVET centres. Skills’ testing facilities often use several assessment methods or strategies to measure an individual’s performance, competencies and skills. They provide a range of testing methods for different occupational competencies.
• Public employment services (PES) and private employment agencies (PrEAs) are generally services that assist in matching job candidates with employers and often provide other services such as counselling and vocational guidance, job-search courses and related forms of intensified counselling for people with difficulties in finding employment. In countries where PES or PrEAs are available and provide skills’ assessments in-house, consider referrals for returnees who are already likely to possess the skills and competencies for the occupation envisaged in the reintegration plan. For returnees eligible for job placement, the skills’ assessment should directly link to the assisted job search and matching process foreseen by the PES or PrEAS.
• Employers providing on-the-job skills’ verification and training for returnees allow returnees to work on the job to demonstrate their skill level, or to practice in a limited authorized format. Depending on the specific regulatory system of the country of origin, the returnee might also be issued a provisional or conditional licence, which is made permanent once the individual’s skills have been verified during his or her on-the-job performance.

In case none of the above types of entities are present in the country of origin, the case manager should coordinate with relevant CSOs and NGOs to set up a service stream for skills’ assessments that is linked to the qualifications framework of the country of origin. 

While some providers (for example, public employment services in most contexts) conduct skills’ assessments free of charge, others may charge returnees a variable fee that is dependent on the skills’ assessment provider and the range of skills and competencies assessed.

2.2.5 Reintegration Sustainability Survey as an assessment tool

One way to perform a comprehensive assessment of a returnee’s reintegration situation is to use the Reintegration Sustainability Survey scoring tool.¹⁹ This scoring system evaluates the returnee’s ability to achieve sustainable reintegration along the economic, social and psychosocial dimensions (see section 1.3 for explanation of the three dimensions).

Using the survey at the assessment phase can serve three purposes:

• It provides a standardized and holistic approach to tailoring reintegration assistance;
• It establishes a common set of indicators to create a baseline for monitoring returnees’ progress towards sustainable reintegration over time;
• It helps case managers identify returnees whose reintegration needs may be higher, because returnees with lower scores are more likely to require greater support and follow-up. 

When the tool is used throughout the reintegration process, the information it gathers can be used to help answer the following question: To what extent have returnees achieved a level of sustainable reintegration in their return communities? It is important to note that using the Reintegration Sustainability Survey as an assessment tool does not replace the other assessments (above) because those should still be used to pinpoint the specific areas of intervention.

Understanding the survey results 

The scoring system produces:

• A composite reintegration score measuring overall reintegration sustainability and which is therefore useful as a general baseline measure; and
• Three separate dimensional scores (economic, social and psychosocial) that measure sustainability in each dimension of reintegration and can highlight discrepancies in status and progress between these dimensions, as well as areas where further assistance might be desirable. Two migrants with a similar composite reintegration score might have very different dimensional scores, signaling different reintegration experiences and needs.

Results use in case management and reintegration planning

All scores are between 0–1 and case managers can use a reintegration score calculator included in the package to automatically process respondents’ answers and calculate the reintegration scores. Case managers can then adjust the intensity of case management and reintegration assistance: an intensified approach would be advisable for returnees whose composite or dimensional score falls below 0.33. If a score reaches values above 0.66, case managers can employ a hands-off approach, with lighter support for the beneficiary overall or in the specific dimension of reintegration where the returnee has achieved a high score. Understanding the reintegration needs of beneficiaries through this scoring can therefore enable case managers to allocate their efforts and services or resources where they are needed most.

¹⁸ This Handbook is specifically concerned with a subset of vulnerable migrants: those vulnerable to violence, exploitation and abuse. Any use of the term “vulnerable migrants” for should be understood to mean migrants vulnerable to violence, exploitation and abuse.

¹⁹ The scoring system was developed on the basis of conclusions from IOM’s Mediterranean Sustainable Reintegration (MEASURE) project in 2017, funded by the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development (DFID). The survey design was tested through qualitative and quantitative fieldwork in five key countries of origin: Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Iraq, Senegal and Somalia. See more in Samuel Hall/IOM, 2017.