Return migration

Infographic

Definition

There is no universally accepted definition of return migration.

Return is “the act or process of going 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 host country (either transit or destination) and a country of origin, as in the case of migrant workers, refugees, asylum-seekers, and qualified nationals.”(IOM Glossary on Migration, 2011).

The four main types of return migration are defined as:

1. Voluntary return is the “assisted or independent return to the country of origin, transit or another third country based on the free will of the returnee.” (IOM Glossary on Migration, 2011)
2. Spontaneous return is “the voluntary, independent return of an individual or group, including refugees, internally displaced persons (IDPs), or asylum-seekers, to their country of origin, usually without the support of States or other international or national assistance.” (IOM Glossary on Migration, 2011).
3. Forced return is “the compulsory return of an individual to the country of origin, transit or third country [country of return], on the basis of an administrative or juridical act” (IOM Glossary on Migration, 2011).
4. Assisted return occurs most often in the form of assisted voluntary return (AVR). IOM defines AVR as the “administrative, logistical, financial and reintegration support to rejected asylum seekers, victims of trafficking in human beings, stranded migrants, qualified nationals and other migrants unable or unwilling to remain in the host country who volunteer to return to their countries of origin” (IOM Glossary on Migration, 2011).

When return programmes involve additional reintegration support for returnees after their return to the country of origin, these programmes are referred to as assisted voluntary return and reintegration (AVRR). IOM defines reintegration as “re-inclusion or re-incorporation into a group or a process, e.g. of a migrant into the society of his country of origin” (2004: 54).

Data sources

Global

As the largest global provider of Assisted Voluntary Return (AVR) and Assisted Voluntary Return and Reintegration (AVRR), IOM collects data on migrants assisted through AVR and AVRR programmes 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, 2017; IOM, 2016; IOM, 2015). The reports also contain data 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, respectively – are collected by IOM and UNHCR.

Data on the outflows of 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:

1. Third country nationals[if !supportNestedAnchors][endif] 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 are collected by the 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 Afghans and refugee returnees crossing to Afghanistan from Pakistan and Iran. The data are published by IOM here. 

Some countries 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 is tracking 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 Kushminder (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.

Data strengths & limitations

• Data on forced return and on voluntary return are scattered across different data sources and are often incomplete or only partially publically available - For example, several countries that implement AVR programmes 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 provides a list of questions and indicators to be included in post-return monitoring activities.