2016•01•14 Maastricht
International Association for the Study of Forced Migration
International Conference 2016
Rethinking Forced Migration and Displacement: Theory, Policy, and Praxis
Theme 12: The long journey home: Return and reintegration
Return migration is a powerful symbol, as it aims to signal a return to ‘normalcy’ and ‘reintegration’ as a durable solution to (forced) migration. Investigating such an assumption is key to have a better understanding of the reintegration processes and informing policy and programming responses. However, what still remains underexplored is what the experiences of returnees are upon return and what individual and contextual factors contribute to the sustainability (if any) of their return. This calls for a dual approach in studying return and reintegration, or integration of those born and raised outside their country of nationality, as is the case in many protracted refugees situations (e.g. Afghans in Iran and Pakistan, Somalis in Kenya).
To date, return and reintegration within forced migration and displacement have been researched mainly from a qualitative methods approach. Only in the recent years, evolutions in quantitative research have been applied to this research field broadening our ways of measuring and understanding reintegration. Examples include the use of multi-dimensional wellbeing and poverty indices, developed by Sen and Alkire and Foster[1], as well as new approaches to developing subjective indicators of reintegration in research. Discussing the theoretical background and the methodological applications of such quantitative research is essential for bringing forward the analysis of return and reintegration within forced migration and development.
Combining the thematic gap on reintegration and the methods gap on quantitative research, this panel will present quantitative approaches to measuring return and reintegration in (forced) migration situations. This panel will be chaired by Katie Kuschminder, Maastricht Graduate School of Governance, UNU-Merit.
This panel is being submitted as part of the 16th conference of the International Association for the Study of Forced Migration (IASFM) which will take place on July 12-15, 2016 at the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan, Poland.
If you are interested in presenting a paper for this panel, please submit abstracts of 250 words by 27th January 2015 to Nassim Majidi (Nassim.majidi@sciencespo.fr) and Özge Bilgili (ozge.bilgili@maastrichtuniversity.nl).