Work Package 3: Intergovernmental Return Frameworks
Key Findings:
- Return migration is now central to European foreign policy, shaping relations with non-EU states.
- Return diplomacy has increased, relying on informal cooperation rather than formal agreements.
- European states vary in prioritization and coordination of return policies.
- Return diplomacy lacks transparency and civil society involvement.
- Non-EU countries often have little interest in return agreements and view forced returns negatively.
Policy Recommendations:
- Ensure negotiations are balanced and mutually beneficial.
- Focus on long-term, practical cooperation beyond formal agreements.
- Improve coordination across government departments.
- Recognize and address partner countries’ political sensitivities.
- Prioritize trust-building over strict return quotas.
Work Package 4: Non-EU and diasporic (counter) discourses
Key Findings:
- European migration discourse emphasizes security, while non-EU countries focus on development and humanitarian aspects.
- Perceived fairness of return policies influences compliance.
- Social media plays a key role in shaping migrant resistance strategies.
- Diaspora communities develop hybrid narratives on return.
- Migrants use various forms of resistance, from legal loopholes to remigration.
Policy Recommendations:
- Strengthen legitimacy-based approaches to return and reintegration.
- Ensure governments in non-EU+ countries take responsibility for reintegration.
- Address social media’s dual role in resistance and information-sharing.
- Include returnees and civil society in policymaking.
- Shift narratives from security to development-oriented approaches.
Work Package 5: International Bureaucracy and Redocumentation
Key Findings:
- Return policy functions as both an enforcement and reclassification mechanism.
- A disconnect exists between EU return policy goals and actual outcomes.
- Securitization dominates policy thinking, despite limited success in enforcement.
Policy Recommendations:
- Rethink the securitization paradigm and explore alternatives, such as recognizing the labor market contributions of irregular migrants.
- Accept that balancing enforcement with regularization and non-enforcement measures is both necessary and beneficial.
Work Package 6: Alternatives to return
Key Findings:
- Many European countries informally tolerate irregular migrants due to labor market needs.
- Regularization policies vary, with some countries emphasizing economic benefits and others opposing them as incentives for irregular migration.
- A gap exists between political rhetoric on irregularity and the realities of migrant integration.
Policy Recommendations for Civil Society Organizations (CSOs):
- Promote the mutual benefits of regularization, emphasizing economic and social contributions.
- Highlight success stories to counter negative political narratives.
- Challenge misleading portrayals of irregular migration.
For Policymakers:
- Simplify regularization procedures and legal pathways.
- Ensure regularization applicants are not at risk of deportation.
- Consider family ties and social integration in regularization policies.
- Provide stable legal status options to prevent recurring irregularity.
Work Package 7: Monitoring of Enforced Return and Reintegration
Key Findings:
- Return processes pose significant human rights risks, particularly due to externalization and informalization of EU migration law.
- Forced return monitors face operational challenges that limit effectiveness.
- Assisted Voluntary Return and Reintegration (AVRR) programs lack consistent human rights monitoring.
Policy Recommendations:
- Strengthen human rights monitoring in forced and voluntary return processes.
- Ensure forced-return monitors have full access to all stages of return operations.
- Develop EU-coordinated human rights monitoring for AVRR programs.
- Establish complaint mechanisms and independent oversight for return procedures.
Work Package 8: Migration Outcomes
Key Findings:
- A new dataset consolidates return enforcement and policy data across EU+ and non-EU+ countries.
- Bilateral and EU-wide return frameworks significantly impact return rates.
- Economic conditions and migration networks shape return outcomes alongside legal frameworks.
- Non-enforcement policies influence migration flows and irregular migrant stocks.
Policy Recommendations:
- Refine return agreements based on effectiveness and humanitarian considerations.
- Improve data collection and analysis for evidence-based policymaking.
- Address non-policy drivers, such as economic conditions, in return strategies.
- Balance enforcement with alternative return mechanisms.
- Foster cross-border research collaboration to improve policy development