Private-Sector Engagement Could Broaden Employment Pathways for Migrant Returnees

BRUSSELS — Seeding small-scale entrepreneurship has long been central to economic reintegration support for migrant returnees, but a new Migration Policy Institute Europe policy brief finds that involvement of companies and other private-sector actors could broaden the employment pathways available to returnees.

The brief, Private-Sector Engagement: A key element of supporting returnee reintegration through employment, examines how donors, implementing partners and countries of origin can expand economic reintegration options beyond the longstanding reliance on microenterprise grants, which have shown mixed results. The analysis, part of an EU-funded project in the framework of the Migration Partnership Facility of the International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD), draws on interviews with programme implementers, policymakers and civil-society organisations; a review of existing research; and insights gathered during an expert roundtable.

Entrepreneurship grants remain an important option for returnees with the aptitude and experience to establish a business. But evidence increasingly suggests that this approach does not work equally well for all returnees. For example, more than two-thirds of returnees interviewed as part of one evaluation of return and reintegration programming said they could not sustain their livelihoods at the time of the survey, approximately 3.6 years after return.

Instead, analysts Bertrand Steiner, Ravenna Sohst and Camille Le Coz write, promising and emerging efforts are moving beyond microenterprise to focus on individual job-readiness support, incentives for employers to hire returnees and public-private cooperation frameworks.

‘Returnee populations vary widely in educational attainment, work experience, language abilities and personal circumstances’, the authors write. This diversity indicates that reintegration programmes need to offer a broader range of economic pathways, including wage employment, which can provide regular income, lower financial risk than business ownership and opportunities to build skills and professional networks. In exchange, the private sector gains workers with international experience, language abilities and cross-cultural competencies.

As the evidence base continues to develop, the brief points to ways of moving beyond small-scale pilots and building more durable approaches. It calls on European donors, implementing partners and authorities in countries of origin to:

• Start from labour-market demand: Conduct labour-market assessments before designing training or placement schemes, identifying actual vacancies, priority sectors and realistic wage expectations.
• Invest in local employment institutions: Strengthen employment services, chambers of commerce and other intermediaries so they can prepare returnees, match them with employers and provide continuity of support.
• Build enabling systems rather than isolated employer partnerships: Establish public-private coordination platforms, transparent referral mechanisms and monitorable labour standards that can sustain employer engagement beyond individual project cycles.

The brief also cautions against treating job-placement numbers as the principal measure of success. Sustainable reintegration depends on whether returnees can remain in work, earn adequate wages and benefit from fair and ethical working conditions over time. 

‘These insights show that successful private-sector engagement is a system-building endeavour’, the authors write. ‘Success requires enabling conditions such as trustworthy intermediaries, employer incentives aligned with business needs and adequate labour standards’.

Read the policy brief here: www.migrationpolicy.org/mpi-europe/publication/private-sector-engagement-reintegration.