Since the peak of the ‘refugee crisis’ in 2015, migration policies have become more restrictive in Europe, including measures of increased deportation and repatriation. As a result, IOs, 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 become a prominent subject of the global development agenda, where it is considered a priority area of migration–development policies.

In 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 does gender shape the reintegration process of migrants?
• How patterns of return mobilities and reintegration impact upon gender in the Gambia, Guinea and Senegal?
• What are the similarities and divergences between the return policy discourse and migrants’ personal experiences?

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.