The Reintegrate project combined the fields of reintegration and migration governance to establish a new sub-field of reintegration governance. The project developed a conceptual understanding of reintegration governance, its implementation and effectiveness, and a new theoretical framework of how different forms of reintegration governance shape returnees' reintegration outcomes, through an in-depth comparative analysis of four case countries: Nepal, Nigeria, the Philippines, and Serbia. Rooted in the nexus between policies and migrant agency, the project used a trajectories approach to illustrate the role that returnees play in their own reintegration outcomes. The project makes several original contributions. It is the first study to systematically examine how reintegration is governed, highlighting the differences between migration management and migrant protection priorities within reintegration policies. It produced an original comparative analytical framework tested across four countries, each representing a different form of reintegration governance. It also addresses a gap in migration governance scholarship by centring the trajectories and agency of returnees as a critical dimension of analysis.
The European Union makes significant investments in return and reintegration policies, yet these are frequently evaluated as ineffective. The Reintegrate project examined reintegration governance from the perspectives of origin countries, revealing the increasing and innovative role that Nepal, Nigeria, the Philippines, and Serbia are playing in governing reintegration independently of European-led frameworks. A critical finding is that the most vulnerable returnees, including victims of trafficking, deportees, and those facing stigma in their communities, consistently lack access to reintegration services, including those funded by the European Union. This points to a fundamental gap between investment and impact that requires urgent attention. Ultimately, the project argues that effective reintegration is a shared responsibility, one that requires genuine partnership between origin countries, destination countries, international organisations, and local communities, with origin country ownership and local co-production at its centre.
