There are two main forms of return migration: voluntary return and forced return. Data on forced return are usually collected by national and international statistical offices, border protection and immigration law enforcement agencies. The International Organization for Migration (IOM) collects data on assisted voluntary return and reintegration programmes that it implements worldwide.
IOM Assisted Voluntary Return and Reintegration: 2017 at a Glance
There is no universally accepted definition of return migration.
Return is “in a general sense, the act or process of going back or being taken back to the point of departure. This could be within the territorial boundaries of a country, as in the case of returning internally displaced persons (IDPs) and demobilised combatants; or between a country of destination or transit and a country of origin, as in the case of migrant workers, refugees or asylum seekers.” (IOM Glossary on Migration, 3rd Edition, 2018 - forthcoming).
Two main types of return migration are defined as follows:
1. Voluntary return - is “the assisted or independent return to the country of origin, transit or another country based on the voluntary decision of the returnee.” (IOM Glossary on Migration, 3rd Edition, 2018 - forthcoming).
Voluntary returns can be either spontaneous or assisted:
When return programmes involve additional reintegration support for returnees, these programmes are referred to as assisted voluntary return and reintegration (AVRR). IOM defines AVRR as “Administrative, logistical or financial support, including reintegration assistance, to migrants unable or unwilling to remain in the host country or country of transit and who decide to return to their country of origin.” (IOM Glossary on Migration, 3rd Edition, 2018 - forthcoming).
2. Forced return - “a migratory movement which, although the drivers can be diverse, involves force, compulsion, or coercion.” (IOM Glossary on Migration, 3rd Edition, 2018 - forthcoming).
Global
Europe
Frontex, the European Union Border and Coast Guard Agency, reports that 305,365 irregular migrants were given a “return decision” by EU Member States in 2016. Of this figure, 176,223 people were effectively returned (either forcibly or voluntarily). (Frontex, 2017)
The United Kingdom (UK) reported 39,626 people who were removed or departed voluntarily from the UK in 2016. Of this figure, 28 per cent left the UK via forced removal, 33 per cent voluntarily, 3 per cent through AVR programmes implemented by the government and 36 per cent via other verified returns. Since 2004, forced removals have declined while voluntary departures have increased (Blinder, 2017).
According to IOM, the European Economic Area (EEA) remained the main region from which migrants returned (70% of the total caseload) despite a decrease of 38 per cent in the number of beneficiaries from 2016 to 2017 (IOM, 2018). In 2017, a total of 50,587 migrants returned from the EEA with the support of IOM (ibid.) The majority of the migrants assisted returned from Germany, Greece, Belgium, Austria, and the Netherlands mainly to Iraq, Albania and Serbia (ibid.).
North and Latin America
The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) reported 450,954 removals and returns in 2016 (ICE, 2016). In Canada, a total of 15,232 persons were removed from the country in 2013 (latest available figure) (Canada Border Services Agency Annual Report, 2012-2013).
In 2014, there was a recorded 37 per cent increase from 2013 of Salvadorians repatriating to their homeland by air and land, mainly from the United States and Mexico due to increased deportation regulations (SICREMI, 2015). Between 2012 and 2013, 64,886 Salvadorians were repatriated.
Returns from Spain to the Americas doubled between 2006 and 2007 and increased another 15-20 per cent the following two years (SICREMI, 2015). Returns have remained between 135,000 and 140,000 since 2010.
In 2017, there were 244 assisted voluntary returnees (or 88% of the total assisted voluntary returns to the region), returned within the Central and North America and Caribbean regions (CNAC), mainly from the Dominican Republic to Haiti (IOM, 2018).
South America
In 2017, 94 per cent of migrants returning to South America returned from the EEA. More than half of migrants returning to South America returned from Belgium and Spain (IOM, 2018). In addition, and 57 per cent of AVRR beneficiaries from the EEA returned to Brazil (mostly from Belgium and Portugal) (IOM, 2018).
Asia and the Pacific
There was a slight increase in the number of voluntary returns from Asia and the Pacific; 2,000 returns in 2017 and 1,883 returns in 2016 (IOM, 2018). Similarly to 2016, the majority of returns flows from the region in 2017 were intraregional (more than 75%), mostly from Australia, Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia, to Sri Lanka, the Islamic Republic of Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan (ibid.).
The Middle East and Africa
Global
As the largest global provider of Assisted Voluntary Return (AVR) and Assisted Voluntary Return and Reintegration (AVRR) programmes, IOM collects voluntary return data on a regular basis. IOM data include the number of participants, host and origin country, as well as sex, age and migration status in the host country prior to return. Since 2010, IOM has published key data on the AVRR website (IOM, 2018, IOM, 2017; IOM, 2016; IOM, 2015). IOM data also include information on assisted migrants by specific vulnerability (unaccompanied migrant children, migrants with health-related needs and victims of trafficking).
Data on returned or “repatriated” refugees – i.e. refugees who have returned to their country of origin spontaneously or in an organized manner (sometimes with help of IOM’s AVRR programmes)– are collected respectively by IOM and UNHCR.
Data on the outflows of the foreign population from selected OECD countries are collected by OECD’S Continuous Reporting System on International Migration (SOPEMI) and published in the annual International Migration Outlook report.
Europe
Since 2014, Eurostat has provided the following data for 21 EU Member States on return migration of people who are third-country nationals:
Data on forced and voluntary return from EU Member States and the three Schengen Associated Countries (Iceland, Norway and Switzerland) are also published in the Frontex Risk Analysis Reports.
The Return Migration and Development Platform from the European University Institute promotes exchange and knowledge-sharing about return migrants’ realities and the contexts of their experiences.
United States
Data on the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency’s “enforcement and removal operations” (ERO), including forced returns, are summarized in its annual reports.
Central and South America
Data on return migration from and to Central and South (and Northern) American countries are collected by OECD’s Continuous Reporting System on International Migration in the Americas (SICREMI) and published in the International Migration in the Americas reports.
Australia
The Australian Government Department of Immigration and Border Protection publishes annual data on forced and voluntary return from Australia.
Afghanistan
The Afghan Ministry of Refugees and Repatriation, with the support of IOM, recently started the implementation of the Afghan Returnee Information System (ARIS), a digital registration process for both undocumented migrants and refugee returnees crossing to Afghanistan from Pakistan and Iran. IOM publishes these data here.
Some countries and/or organizations have collected data to monitor return migration and the outcomes of return programmes, for example:
A few research studies have assessed the sustainability of return and reintegration programmes. For example, Koser and Kuschminder (2015) developed a Return and Reintegration Index which was tested on 156 returnees in eight countries of origin. Strand et al. (2016) measured sustainable return based on the perception of returnees from Norway to Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Iraqi Kurdistan, and Kosovo, and ICMPD (2015) conducted a study to evaluate the sustainability of AVR programmes from Austria to Kosovo.
Back to topData on forced return and on voluntary return are scattered across different data sources and are often incomplete or only partially publicly available - For example, several countries that implement AVRR programmes (either under IOM or government auspices) are not reported on in the Eurostat database (e.g. Germany, The Netherlands, and the UK). In addition, voluntary departures are usually not tracked. In order to improve this, the EU is implementing the Integrated Return Management Application (IRMA), a secure web-platform for integrating all EU return activities.
There is a large data gap on post-return data mainly due to the lack of definitions and established indicators for measuring “reintegration”. However, in January 2016, the EMN released guidelines for the monitoring and evaluation of AVR(R) programmes that provide a list of questions and indicators to be included in post-return monitoring activities.
More recently in 2017, the DFID-funded MEASURE Project (Mediterranean Sustainable Reintegration), a pilot project that fosters the sustainability of reintegration support in the framework of Assisted Voluntary Return and Reintegration in the Mediterranean, led to the development of a set of 15 field-tested indicators and a scoring system to measurement of reintegration outcomes and improving understanding of returnees’ progress towards sustainability. These indicators are based on a revised definition of sustainable reintegration in the context of return, (IOM, 2017) and therefore relate to the three economic, social and psychosocial dimensions of reintegration. The scoring system allows comparison of trends in returnees’ reintegration across country contexts and over time.
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