Polish Team Emphasizes the Role of Return Policy: Lessons from Horizon GAPs Research for EU Migration Debates
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During the month of January 2025, an expert from the Polish team within the Horizon Europe GAPs project, Mateusz Krępa, presented in two different important venues findings on return migration emerging from this project, with several critical policy implications.
In Dziennik Gazeta Prawna, Krępa comments on recent data from Frontex, according to which there is a general decline in irregular border crossings at the EU's borders. Building on the results of Work Package 3 (WP3) of the GAPs project, he elaborates on the deeper causes of this trend and underlines the role of effective return policies in preventing irregular migration. According to Krępa, a combination of well-negotiated readmission agreements and robust reintegration programs is key to return policy effectiveness. His analysis was informed by fieldwork conducted in Georgia in early 2024, which examined how tailored reintegration initiatives, such as business support programs, can facilitate sustainable returns.
In an article in Magazyn Kontakt, Krępa critically analysed Poland's Migration Strategy for 2025–2030, which was adopted in October 2024. He pinpointed several weak points in the strategy and emphasised how necessary it is to have a coherent and effective return migration framework. Referring to the research on GAPs, he mentioned the unwillingness of some countries to take their citizens back and showed solutions applied by other European states, including economic or political incentives in readmission agreements and designing reintegration support for returning migrants. Once again, the Georgian case was a very inspiring example of how reintegration activities can be moderately successful in building sustainable returns.
By participating in such debates, Mateusz Krępa has presented important findings of the Horizon GAPs project and contributed to shaping the discourses on return migration and related policy development in Europe.
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