PRESS RELEASE : A New Horizon Europe Project on Migrant Returns and Readmission Policies

GAPS

Press Release #01/2023

A New Horizon Europe Project on Migrant Returns and Readmission Policies

GAPs: Decentring the Study of Migrant Returns and Readmission Policies in Europe and Beyond (101094341)

GAPs is a new Horizon Europe project, awarded a grant from the EC to conduct a comprehensive multidisciplinary study on the drivers of return policies and barriers and enablers in international cooperation on returns.

GAPs is an interdisciplinary 3-year project (2023-2026), co-coordinated by Uppsala University and Bonn International Centre for Conflict Studies with 17 partners in 12 countries across 4 continents.

The research examines the disconnects between expectations of return policies and their actual outcomes by de-centring the dominant, one-sided understanding of “return policymaking.”

GAPs will:

• scrutinize the shortcomings of the EU’s governance of returns;

• analyse enablers and barriers of international cooperation, and

• shed light on the perspectives of migrants themselves to understand their knowledge of return policies, aspirations and experiences.

GAPs combines its decentring approach with three innovative concepts:

• a focus on return migration infrastructures that enable the project to analyze governance fissures;

• an analysis of return migration diplomacy to understand how relations among EU MSs and with third countries hinder cooperation on returns; and

• a trajectory approach that uses a socio-spatial and temporal lens to understand migrant agency.

By taking a close look at governance, cooperation and actor’s agency, GAPs aims to suggest new avenues for international cooperation, develop recommendations for stakeholders and explore alternative pathways to returning migrants. The project will have wide-ranging and innovative impacts, including the creation of an interactive data repository on returns, a return cooperation index, return governance indicators, policy briefs and workshops, the formation of stakeholder expert panels, a digital storytelling and video series, the launching of a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) as well as open access publications.

Field work is expected to be conducted in 12 countries: Sweden, Nigeria, Germany, Morocco, Netherlands, Afghanistan, Poland, Georgia, Turkey, Tunisia, Greece and Iraq.

Consortium members

1. Uppsala University (Sweden)

2. Bonn International Centre For Conflict Studies (Germany)

3. Stichting Radboud Universiteit (Netherlands)

4. Ozyegin Universitesi (Turkey)

5. Hammurabi Human Rights Organization (Iraq)

6. Svenska Forskningsinstitutet i Istanbul (Sweden/Turkey)

7. Hashemite University (Jordan)

8. Ethniko Kentro Koinonikon Erevnon (Greece)

9. Association Migration Internationale (Morocco)

10. Toronto Metropolitan University (Canada)

11. University of Nigeria (Nigeria)

12. Bilim Organization for Research and Social Studies (Afghanistan)

13. Uniwersytet Warszawski (Poland)

14. Migration Matters EV (Germany)

15. University of Sousse (Tunisia)

16. SPIA UG (Germany)

17. University of Glasgow (UK)

Contact:

Soner O. Barthoma | CRS, Uppsala University | soner.barthoma@crs.uu.se

Dr Zeynep Sahin-Mencütek | Bonn International Centre for Conflict Studies | zeynep.mencutek(at)bicc.de

---