Reframing Return and Reintegration: Origin-country priorities and strategies for cooperation
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Highlights
As origin-country reintegration frameworks evolve, governance gaps and misaligned donor support remain major obstacles to effective cooperation on migrant return.
- Origin-country return and reintegration policies have shifted since COVID-19 and recent migration crises, with some countries adopting stand-alone strategies and others mainstreaming support into existing social systems.
- Ministries of foreign affairs often lead on returns but lack local capacity and expertise to deliver reintegration services, creating coordination gaps with social affairs and labour ministries.
- Donor-driven programmes risk short-term impact if not anchored in national institutions and budgets; origin countries increasingly assert ownership and push back against externally imposed frameworks.
- Recommendations include integrating returnees into public services, strengthening local authority roles, improving data collection, and keeping dialogue open despite political sensitivities.
In many parts of the world, managing the return and reintegration of a country's nationals has become a prominent policy concern. Driven by growing awareness of the dangers some migrants face, high-profile emergencies, and in some cases pressure from EU and other destination countries, origin-country governments are increasingly developing policies, processes, and institutional structures to support migrants who return home under varied circumstances.
This policy brief examines these policy and institutional developments, highlighting key domestic and international considerations for countries of origin. It identifies opportunities to better align local service delivery, national policies, and donor support—and in doing so, to strengthen international cooperation on return, readmission, and reintegration.
The study draws on examples from countries in sub-Saharan Africa and other regions, leveraging insights shared in interviews with national and local government officials and nongovernmental actors.
Table of contents
1 Introduction
2 Key Considerations for Countries of Origin
A. Domestic priorities
B. External incentives and pressure points
3 From Projects to Policy: How origin countries formalise return and reintegration
A. Catalysts for policy formulation
B. Stand-alone versus integrated policy approaches
4 The Governance of Return and Reintegration
A. Institutional arrangements and their implications
B. Linkages between national and subnational bodies
5 Conclusion
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