Sustainable reintegration is intrinsically linked to the development of the country of return. An individual’s sustainable reintegration depends on various factors, including environmental and structural capacities as well as development and economic opportunities available in the country of origin. In countries where these are lacking, sustainable reintegration may be difficult or not possible at all. Also, as noted in the discussion of Reintegration after return, return can create many development-related challenges for countries of origin, in particular if a large number of people return within a short time frame and if the local community lacks the capacity to absorb them. Competition over available resources and resentments towards returnees may lead to social tensions that can hamper local development. Furthermore, returnees will cease sending back remittances to their families (if they had been doing so), which can also have an impact on the economic situation of individual households and on whole communities.

Reintegration initiatives can contribute to address these issues when they focus also on addressing local development needs. They can impact both the returnees as well as the larger community and increase the absorption capacities of countries and communities of return. Community-based interventions usually also encourage the participation of returnees and non-migrant population alike. They therefore also support social cohesion between returnees and their communities (IOM, 2017c).

Good Practice
Dialogue to identify needs of the community

The long-standing conflict in Somalia has displaced many people, both internally and across borders. One of the initiatives intended to provide inclusive access to basic services while contributing to conflict reduction and peacebuilding was building a bridge in the district of Baidoa, in the South West State. The local community was deeply involved in identifying the bridge as an effective intervention to support approximately 30,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs), 37,500 returnees (that is, returning IDPs, returning refugees and returning migrants) and 82,500 members of the receiving communities. This involved a very engaged process whereby national and local authorities, as well as IOM, invited the community to participate as follows.

First, a core facilitation team was created to lead the consultation process. It included nominated community members as well as government officials from The Ministry of Planning and International Cooperation, the Ministry of Interior of South West State of Somalia, the Governor’s Office of Bay Region, the Mayor/District Commissioner’s Office in Baidoa, and the South West State Commission for Refugees. They received training in facilitation and were central in securing engagement and buy-in from the community in the consultation and planning processes.

Consultations were then held to identify the town’s different socioeconomic groups and select representatives. Two groups were formed as a result: an action group with 22 representatives of IDPs, returnees, women, youth, the elderly as well as specific villages, to be involved in the consultation and planning processes; and a smaller four-person group of nominated representatives to be involved in monitoring and evaluating the construction of the bridge. The first group contributed to identifying the most suitable intervention and the second group was involved in its implementation as well as monitoring and evaluation. Although national and local authorities and IOM were involved at all stages, this process enabled the community’s ownership of the bridge.

Source

IOM, 2020.

If successfully reintegrated into the local society and labour market, return migrants can also be drivers of development for their countries of origin, as noted by Debnath (2016). Return migrants can:

  • Bring their human capital and skillset acquired in host countries, especially in the case of the return of highly qualified migrants;
  • Invest in local economies with their remittances and wealth accumulated while abroad;
  • Utilize their transnational linkages to facilitate innovative business partnerships and ventures between the host and origin countries;
  • Act as social change makers in their home countries.

For a concrete example, see details on the global skills partnerships cooperation model in Partnerships: The need for cooperation and coordination.

A holistic approach will be more likely to advance the potential for both reintegration and development. A holistic approach involves mainstreaming migrant reintegration into development plans and into national policies as well as considering opportunities for enhancing local development in reintegration initiatives. Effective coordination among different stakeholders – government and non-government actors as well as public and private entities at the local and international level – is required to ensure that the specific needs of returnees and communities alike are targeted in all efforts. Complementarities between different funding instruments or budget allocations need to be identified: those used to address return management and those supporting cooperation for development. See, for instance, the example below and the Interlinkage on Environment, climate change and reintegration.

Case Study
Public–private partnerships for green jobs in Ethiopia

In Ethiopia, existing partnerships between public authorities (including technical and vocational education and training institutes), private companies and civil society organizations focused part of their work on job creation and decent work programming, in collaboration with IOM and the International Labour Organization (ILO). Under the project, 25 Ethiopian women that IOM assisted in returning from Saudi Arabia benefited from economic reintegration support through an initiative of a partner organization: Penda Manufacturing PLC, a paper recycling company in Addis Ababa. The initiative provides a fixed amount of monetary compensation per deposited kilogram to members of the community who deposit wastepaper in designated deposit sites.

Source

IOM, 2019.

Reintegration assistance is best integrated in development strategies in countries of origin. However, development aid should not aim at limiting further migration. Improvement in development indicators generally leads to an increase of mobility in the short term, as a result of broadening opportunities and opening regular migration channels. In the context of return, however, improving structural factors that affect reintegration allows individual returnees to make a free choice, rather than opting for (largely irregular) re-migration out of necessity (IOM, 2017c).

Policy Approaches
Fostering development through return and reintegration

This is a step-by-step process for mainstreaming return and reintegration into development strategies and policies

1. SENSITIZATION Key stakeholders are brought together to discuss the purpose and objectives of the mainstreaming activity to assist the development of a proposal for the process.
2. SCOPING EXERCISE To identify existing return and reintegration components in sectoral policies and development planning frameworks, and to assess the associated timelines, key stakeholders, challenges and potential ways forward for structuring the process.
3. GOAL SETTING To identify and prioritize goals. This process should involve all key reintegration stakeholders and reflect their feedback and priorities. If possible, it should be integrated into ongoing development planning processes.
4. ACTION PLANNING Involves selecting and developing programmes and projects in order to achieve the selected priorities, by defining target beneficiaries, specifying the key activities to be pursued and identifying relevant partners. 
5. IMPLEMENTATION Building on the agreed action plan, the public entity in charge should develop an implementation plan and a resource mobilization strategy so that resources, decision-making, roles and responsibilities and reporting are clear. 
6. MONITORING The plan should be continuously reviewed, updated and adapted. Any return and reintegration policies or actions implemented but not included in the initial plan should also be integrated to track and monitor all mainstreaming activities in one document.

 

Source

IOM, 2019: 163.

To Go Further

Read more on Remittances, Entrepreneurship and Diaspora engagement.

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