Dr. Eveline Odermatt, Departement für Sozialarbeit, Sozialpolitik und globale Entwicklung, hat ein zweijähriges vom Swiss Network for International Studies (SNIS) gefördertes Projekt erhalten, welches in Koordination mit der Fachhochschule Nordwestschweiz, Hochschule für Soziale Arbeit, durchgeführt wird. Das Projekt ‘Gender, Return Migration and Reintegration in the Gambia, Guinea, and Senegal’ untersucht, wie Gender die Rückkehr von Migrant*innen und ihre Rückintegration in den Untersuchungsländern beeinflusst, und umgekehrt, wie sich Rückkehr-Mobilitäten auf Gender-Dynamiken auswirken.

Für mehr Information siehe: https://snis.ch/projects/gender-return-migration-and-reintegration-in-the-gambia-guinea-and-senegal/

Project Summary

How does gender shape return mobilities and reintegration, and how do patterns of return mobilities and reintegration impact upon gender in the Gambia, Guinea and Senegal?

Since the peak of the ‘refugee crises’ in 2015, more restrictive migration policies have been implemented across Europe, including measures of increased deportation and repatriation. As a result, International Organisations, European state development agencies, and NGOs have expanded their engagement in return-led schemes, such as in ‘assisted voluntary return programmes’. Moreover, return migration has also become a prominent subject of the global development agenda, where it has become a priority area of migration–development policies.

It is against this background of the return migration context, that we situate our research. We intend to deconstruct the international return policy discourse by introducing the migrants’ subjective experiences on their return and reintegration processes. While gendered analysis has become more integral in migration studies, it is by far less existent in post-return reintegration. Thus, the overall aim of this project is to understand how gender shapes the reintegration process of migrants, and vice-versa, how patterns of return mobilities and reintegration impact upon gender in the Gambia, Guinea and Senegal. Thereby, we focus on three groups of returnees: 1) migrants seeking institutional support before returning to Gambia, Guinea or Senegal, 2) returnees only seeking support after arrival, and 3) returnees seeking no support.

The study is based on a multi-sited ethnography, using a variety of fieldwork methods. Given that both gender and return are subject to complex temporal dynamics, the project is partly designed as a longitudinal study. In order to investigate the full scope of the interlinkages between reintegration and gender as well as the support mechanisms addressed to returnees, we opt for a pluri-disciplinary approach that involves social anthropology, development studies, human geography, sociology, and social work.

The expected project results will enable a wide range of users - governments, IOs/NGOs, among others - to obtain knowledge on gender aspects inherent to return and reintegration processes in the countries under study, so as to optimise their return infrastructure. 

Our project partners:

• School of Social Work, University of Northwestern Switzerland
• University Julius Nyerere, Kankan (Guinea Conakry)
• University Assane Seck, Ziguinchor (Senegal)
• International Organisation for Migration / IOM Senegal

Our associated partners:

• Deutsche Gesellschaft fuer Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) Senegal
• International Organisation for Migration / IOM Regional Office West- and Central Africa
• International Organisation for Migration / IOM Switzerland
• Association des jeunes rapatriés Thiaroye-sur-mer (AJRAP), Senegal
• Kirchliche Kontaktstelle für Flüchtlingsfragen KKF / L’Office de consultation sur l’asile OCA, Switzerland