CALL FOR RETURN MIGRATION TO CONFLICT OR POST-CONFLICT COUNTRIES

[madhulika sahoo]

This is a call for papers for one proposed panel session at the International Association for the Study of Forced Migration (IASFM) 14, in Kolkata, India, January 6-9, 2013.

RETURN MIGRATION TO CONFLICT OR POST-CONFLICT COUNTRIES

This panel explores a broad range of aspects related to return migration to countries that are experiencing, or have recently experienced violent conflict. We understand return migration as both temporary and permanent return and are interested in all stages of the return process; from the stay/return decision-making process to post-return (re)integration.

Many migrants are considering return, whether it is to a localized 'home' or the country of origin. In most cases, return is a future option rather than an immediate plan. The idea and possibility of eventual return can nevertheless be an important aspect of migrants’ lives in another country, even if the return never takes place. Experiences of marginalization can stimulate plans for return, whilst some suggest that planned return may lessen commitment to integration. The possibility of return can also be central to migrants’ transnational relationships with people in their country of origin. For forced migrants return may also be forced, through deportation/removal, or blocked by a lack of appropriate travel documents, resulting in 'forced immobility'.

As with the possibility of return, the reality of actual return can often be characterized as ambiguous. Possible comforts of being ‘back home’ are challenged by changes in both the country of return and the migrants themselves; making return a future-oriented project. Returnees face many challenges, exacerbated or mitigated by their own experiences of migration, the accuracy of pre-return information, aims, and the socioeconomic contexts to which they return. These challenges are intensified in conflict-affected countries.

Paper proposals may consider empirically and/or theoretically (but not be limited to) aspects of the following themes:

- Factors involved in the stay/return decision making process
- Degree of voluntariness in return e.g. deportations, ‘voluntary’ return, retirement return
- Opportunities and challenges of (re)integration after return
- Relationship between return migration and development, including social remittances
- The impact of gender, age and/or class on return migration
- Connections between return migration and transnationalism
- Connections between return migration and integration
- Duty and return in a post-conflict context

Please submit a title and abstract (maximum 250 words) by email to [e-mail], [e-mail] and [e-mail]. DEADLINE: **25 April 2012.**

This panel is organised by members of the PREMIG project (www.prio.no/premig) who are currently researching return to Afghanistan, Burundi and Iraq, from Norway and the UK. However, we welcome submissions based on other empirical or theoretical contexts