This report presents the findings of a study that explored the factors influencing the decision to return, including the role played by return policy interventions. The study also aimed to enhance understanding of the concept of sustainable return, how to define it, and how to measure it. The study was conceived and commissioned as part of the Australian Government Department of Immigration and Border Protection’s Irregular Migration Research Programme and supported by the IOM. It involved fieldwork across 15 countries of origin, transit and destination; and is one of the largest comparative projects on this topic in recent years. At the same time, however, the sample size of respondents in each country is relatively small and this study is intended as a preliminary research project to test a new methodology that requires further expansion and testing.
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