REvolTURN - Managing migrant return through 'voluntariness'
Researcher: Reinhard Schweitzer
Supervisor: Sieglinde Rosenberger
Contact: reinhard.schweitzer@univie.ac.at
Project duration: 1.10.2018 - 30.9.2020
Funding: EU/Horizon 2020 (H2020-MSCA-IF-2017 - Project number: 790197)
About the project
The European Union and many of its Member States increasingly rely on public policies for the so-called ‘voluntary return’ of irregular migrants and (refused) asylum seekers. Very little is known about how these approaches work in practice and whether they meet stated policy goals and discharge state obligations regarding migrants’ human rights. The project REvolTURN addresses this research gap through a close and comparative analysis of ‘voluntary return’ policies in Austria and the UK, including their adoption, implementation and immediate outcome. It examines 1) how voluntariness of return is constructed and framed in law, policy and public discourse, 2) which notions of voluntariness are crucial for policy implementation, and 3) what impact this has on migrants’ own decision-making about their return. REvolTURN thereby addresses a key priority of the Horizon 2020 work programme: to better manage migration, and will contribute to recent scholarship regarding the in/effectiveness of migration policies and the agency of migrants holding no or highly precarious statuses.
Activities & Events
- Two conference panels on “New Perspectives on the European Return Regime” (co-organised with Laura Cleton & Robin Vandevoordt, University of Antwerp) to be held at the 10th Biennial Conference of the ECPR Standing Group on the European Union (Rome, 3–6 June 2020) as well as the 17th IMISCOE Annual Conference (Luxembourg, June 30-2 July, 2020.
- Invited talk on “’Voluntariness’ in the management of migrant irregularity” at the Sussex Centre for Migration Research (SCMR), University of Sussex (Brighton, UK) on 13 November 2019, as part of the SCMR Migration Seminar Series.
- Presentation of the Working Paper “Using or inducing return aspirations: the critical role of return counsellors implementing voluntary return policy in Austria and the Netherlands” (co-authored with Laura Cleton, University of Antwerp) at the Workshop “Stay, move-on, return: Dynamics of mobility aspirations in contexts of forced displacement”, held at the University of Amsterdam on 6-7 November 2019.
- Conference panel “The role of ‘voluntariness’ in the management of migration” at the 16th IMISCOE Annual Conference held at Malmö University, Sweden, on June 26-28, 2019. (Co-organised with Rachel Humphris, Queen Mary University of London).
- First Project Workshop: "Managing Return/Migration through 'Voluntariness'", 29.1.2019 (16:00-18:00) (Info).
Project-related literature and publications
- Schweitzer, R., Humphris, R. & Monforte, P. (2022). “Editorial Introduction: The Role of “Voluntariness” in the Governance of Migration”, Migration and Society: Advances in Research 5: 1–12 (Open Access).
- Schweitzer, R. (2022). ““Voluntary Return” without Civil Society? How the Exclusion of Nongovernment Actors from the Austrian and British Return Regimes Affects the Quality of Voluntariness”, Migration and Society: Advances in Research 5: 29–42 (Open Access).
- Schweitzer, R., Humphris, R. & Monforte, P. (2022). “Editorial Introduction: The Role of “Voluntariness” in the Governance of Migration”, Migration and Society: Advances in Research 5: 1–12.
- Working Paper: “Using or Inducing Return Aspirations? On the role of return counsellors in the implementation of assisted voluntary return policies in Austria and the Netherlands” (co-authored with Laura Cleton, University of Antwerp). Published by the International Migration Institute (IMI) at the University of Amsterdam, in February 2020.
