Why GAPs?
GAPs Project Co-Coordinators: Zeynep Sahin-Mencütek, Önver A. Cetrez and Soner Ö. Barthoma
Migration is an inherent feature of social and economic growth and transformation across the globe. It is not a linear process; for instance, the return of migrants to their country of origin is merely one segment in an often-complex migration journey. The topic of return and readmission of migrants has received growing policy and scholarly attention across the globe, not only in the European Union (EU) and its member states but also in main refugee hosting countries across the globe. Among migrants, the return of rejected asylum seekers, irregular migrants or refugees poses challenges. It thus necessitates the cooperation between multiple actors, states, international organizations, NGOs and migrants and their organizational representation. Return is a complex, multi-layered process involving both legal and operational infrastructures. Understanding the disconnects between expectations of return actors, policies and their actual outcome is one of the aims of the GAPs project. GAPs is not only an acronym – it is a reference to the gaps between policy and practices as well as gaps in knowledge in the public debate. It is this disconnect that the GAPs project seeks to address by unpacking the complex interplay between law, public attitudes, implementation, civil society, migrants themselves and their aspirations across different migration routes.
GAPs project is a new EU-funded Horizon Europe research and innovation project bringing together 60 researchers and professionals within 17 partner organisations. At multiple sites across continents in Asia, Africa, Europe, and North America, our researchers with a diverse disciplinary backgrounds investigate the shortcomings of the EU’s governance of returns internally and externally; the complex interactions of policymakers and local actors involved in return processes both in the Global North and South, and the perspectives of migrants themselves in order to understand their knowledge of return policies, aspirations, and experiences. GAPs will produce policy relevant outcomes which will contribute to the development of more humane governance of migration and return processes, which are built upon legal pathways based on the principle of human rights. GAPs will support policy makers and all stakeholders in creating a platform for discussion about alternative pathways and models for existing return policies, practices, and international cooperation. GAPs is a comprehensive project based on the common understanding of the researchers involved to approach migration from a holistic perspective. GAPs is not only a policy-oriented research project, but also aims to provide a scientific toolbox for stakeholders and to empower migrants and returnees. It does so through a critical perspective to research and demonstrates the positive contribution that both migration and return have made throughout history.
Click image to access interactive GAPs partners map
As project coordinators, we are proud of having formed a large and very diverse consortium that has come together to study return migration and return policies in different regions of the world with the aim of contributing to changes in existing policies, practices and public attitudes in the field of returns migration. The GAPs project has already started its research and activities in March 2023 with a very smooth kick-off that took place at Uppsala University. During the first 6 months, all team members have made extraordinary efforts to get the project up and running smoothly in all countries. We are pleased to see that work package leaders have co-created detailed guidelines for fieldwork and for their expected outputs, organized several workshops to elaborate on concepts and methodologies, and started to test new tools for the implementation of standardized data collection. We look forward to the findings of fieldwork and outreach activities in the coming period.
Stay tuned for project results and activities!