Return Migration

IOM Assisted Voluntary Return and Reintegration and Voluntary Humanitarian Return in 2023

Definition

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 demobilized 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, 2019).

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, 2019).

Voluntary returns can be either spontaneous or assisted:

• Spontaneous return is “the voluntary, independent return of a migrant or a group of migrants to their country of origin, usually without the support of States or other international or national assistance” (IOM Glossary on Migration, 2019).
• Assisted voluntary return and reintegration (AVRR) is the "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, 2019).
• Voluntary humanitarian return (VHR) is the application of assisted voluntary return and reintegration principles in humanitarian settings and “often represents a life-saving measure for migrants who are stranded or in detention” (IOM, 2023).

2. Forced return - “a migratory movement which, although the drivers can be diverse, involves force, compulsion, or coercion.” (IOM Glossary on Migration, 2019).

Data sources

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 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.

The EU-IOM Knowledge Management Hub has developed a Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) package for return and reintegration programmes, with the aim of harmonising M&E across global return and reintegration programmes.

Europe

Since 2014, Eurostat has provided the following data for EU Member States on return migration of people who are third-country nationals: 

1.  Third country nationals ordered to leave - annual data (rounded); 
2.  Third country nationals returned following an order to leave - annual data (rounded);
3.  Third-country nationals who have left the territory by type of return and citizenship; 
4.  Third-country nationals who have left the territory by type of assistance received and citizenship.

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 was collected by OECD’s Continuous Reporting System on International Migration in the Americas (SICREMI) and published in the International Migration in the Americas reports until 2017. 

Australia

The Australian Government Department of Immigration and Border Protection publishes annual data on forced and voluntary return from Australia. 

Afghanistan

IOM reports on undocumented returnees from Iran and Pakistan to Afghanistan here.

Some countries and/or organizations have collected data to monitor return migration and the outcomes of return programmes, for example: 

• Four EU Member States – Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic and Norway – have collected data on post-return, monitoring returnees to identify longer-term outcomes. 
• Switzerland: IOM tracked outcomes for returnees from Switzerland to Nigeria whom it assisted in 2015, at roughly 9 months post-return.
• In the UK in 2013, the charity Refugee Action compiled a small study of the post-return experiences of their beneficiaries.

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, Iraq and Kosovo¹, and ICMPD (2015) conducted a study to evaluate the sustainability of AVR programmes from Austria to Kosovo.¹

Data strengths and limitations

Data 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.

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.

¹ _{References to Kosovo shall be understood to be in the context of United Nations Security Council resolution 1244 (1999).}