Pay-to-Go Schemes and Other Noncoercive Return Programs: Is Scale Possible?
Pay-to-go and other noncoercive return programs can be more humane and cost effective than removals, but weak take-up and sustainability make large-scale use difficult.
Certain immigrant-receiving countries have for decades employed policies to encourage unauthorized immigrants to return to their home countries without the cost, legal barriers, and political obstacles of removals or forced returns. Noncoercive, pay-to-go, voluntary, assisted voluntary, and nonforced returns generally can offer paid travel and/or other financial incentive to encourage unauthorized immigrants to cooperate with immigration officials and leave host countries. There are three key rationales for governments to choose pay-to-go and other returns: it is cost effective, it does not require bilateral cooperation between states, and it offers a more humane alternative to forced return.
Despite these programs’ strong theoretical appeal, they have a history of failure. Large-scale pay-to-go programs are rare, and the “sustainability” of returns (whether migrants successfully remain in their home countries) is unclear. Policymakers crafting pay-to-go return programs must overcome powerful barriers to persuade immigrants to leave. Furthermore, pay-to-go returns are usually only attractive to potential participants when backed up with the threat of removal.
Despite inherent difficulties, the advantages of these programs are sufficient to make them an important part of the policy toolkit to reduce illegal immigration. However, persistent experimentation and evaluation will be needed to overturn barriers to successful implementation and effective use of such return policies.
Table of Contents
I. Introduction
II. The Appeal of Pay-to-Go Return
A. Cost Effectiveness
B. Smooth Cooperation between States
C. Moral and Political Arguments
D. Sustainable Return and Development Gains
III. History and Data
Data
IV. Strategies to Improve Pay-to-Go Return
A. Disincentives and Credible Threats
B. Financial Incentives and Reintegration Assistance
C. Program Design
D. Migrant Networks and Community Engagement
V. Conclusions
About the MPI-EUI Project
This concluded, EU-funded project identified ways in which European and U.S. immigration systems can be improved to address major challenges, in the context of economic turmoil and in the longer term.
About the Global Program
The Global Program bridges policy advice, research, and candid dialogue to design effective migration policies, drawing on global evidence and anticipating the forces reshaping how people move.
