Putting Migrant Reintegration Programmes to the Test: A road map to a monitoring system
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Highlights
EU-funded assisted voluntary return and reintegration (AVRR) programmes lack robust monitoring. This road map proposes frameworks for economic, social, and psychosocial outcomes.
- As of 2017, EU Member States operated at least 96 assisted voluntary return and reintegration (AVRR) initiatives, yet most generated only basic monitoring data such as return counts and brief case descriptions.
- Economic reintegration is the most heavily funded dimension, but evidence of what works is limited; start-up grants for small businesses are common yet often underfunded, poorly adapted to local markets, and seldom sustain long-term stability.
- Psychosocial reintegration remains under-researched. Cited studies show that more than one-third of returnees to Kosovo reported depression symptoms and most surveyed Afghan returnees had at least one mental health issue.
- A stronger monitoring and evaluation framework would track economic, social, and psychosocial reintegration, assess process quality as well as outcomes, include returnee feedback, and enable cross-country comparison.
European policymakers have renewed their commitment to increase returns of migrants determined not to have a right to stay in the European Union, and to cooperate with returnees’ countries of origin to support their reintegration. And as investments in assisted voluntary return and reintegration (AVRR) initiatives have grown, so too has pressure to demonstrate that these programs are living up to the high expectations for them. Yet there is little clarity, let alone consensus, on what “successful” reintegration is or how best to achieve it.
This MPI Europe report examines what is and is not known about returnees' economic, psychosocial, and social reintegration. It also discusses the need to build and strengthen monitoring and evaluation (M&E) systems to help address pressing knowledge gaps, track the impact of AVRR investments, and inform program decision-making. To do so, it lays out a set of guiding principles and explores key questions about the design, ownership, funding, and impact of M&E efforts.
Table of Contents
1 Introduction
2 What Is Successful Reintegration and How Is It Achieved?
A. Prioritizing Livelihoods: Economic Reintegration Assistance
B. Belonging at Home: Psychosocial Reintegration
C. Accessing Local Services and Systems: Social Reintegration
3 Building a Stronger Evidence Base around Reintegration Assistance
A. M&E for AVRR Programs: The State of Play
B. What Should a Comprehensive M&E Framework Look Like?
C. Road Map for the Design and Implementation of a Monitoring System
4 Conclusions
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