PREMIG is a large-scale research project that explores return migration from Norway and the United Kingdom. The project is premised on the idea that the possibility of return - not just actual return - is an important phenomenon. Many immigrants in Europe are considering returning to their country of origin. In most cases, return is a future option rather than a short-term plan. The possibility of return can nevertheless be important in its own right: experiences of marginalization can stimulate plans for return. Furthermore, the prospect of return might lessen commitment to integration. The possibility of return can also be central to migrants’ transnational relationships with people in their country of origin.
Return migration has many faces: for some migrants it is a dream that they hope to realize. Others live in fear of being returned against their will. PREMIG takes a broad approach and aims to cover the diverse aspects of return migration.
Summary report
Many asylum seekers who opt for assisted return come home to countries ruined by war and conflicts. More than half of the persons who return to countries like Afghanistan and Iraq plan to remigrate. A new evaluation of assisted return programms shows that small and uncostly changes can increase the chances that people stay.
Today, Tuesday 15 March, Tove Heggli Sagmo has successfully defended her doctoral thesis at the Department of Sociology and Human Geography at the University of Oslo: Return Migration and Social Change: Creating Distinctions in the Social Field.
We invite abstracts for a session at the RGS-IBG Annual Intrenational Conference (Royal Geographical Society with the Institute of British Geographers), London, 30 August - 2 September, 2016. Deadline for abstracts: 3 February 2016.
We invite abstracts for a session at the 13th IMISCOE conference (International Migration, Integration and Social Cohesion in Europe), Prague 30 June – 2 July 2016. Deadline for submission of abstracts: 18 January 2016.
Immigrants have become integrated into Norwegian society with degrees of success that range between two possible extremes: strong attachment and total alienation. In debates about integration, ethnicity and country of origin are often claimed to be the key factors for determining whether or not integration will be successful. Other important factors are seen as secondary. This contributes to the one-track nature of debates about integration.
Rejected asylum seekers often resist the legal obligation to return. Consequently, European policy makers tasked with migration managament have turned to so-called ‘Assisted Voluntary Return and Reintegration programmes’ (AVRRs) to incentivize return to and support reintegration in the country of origin. Such programmes are described as less politically costly, more humane, simpler and cheaper than deportation. But with very limited monitoring and evaluation of AVRRs we know little about how well they work and whether the promised support is given. A recent policy brief outlines some of the compelling reasons to monitor and evaluate AVRRs.
Senior researcher Marta Bivand Erdal and Ceri Oeppen have co-edited a special issue of Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, Interactions between Integration and Transnationalism. The special issue is the result of a panel organised by Erdal and Oeppen at the Royal Geographic Society/Institute of British Geographers annual conference in 2010.
In Norway, questions of immigration have traditionally been a domestic affair. However, as an increasing number of Norwegian citizens with a migrant background are engaging in humanitarian aid and development initiatives in their countries of origin, questions of integration are tied to those of foreign policy. How do Norwegian authorities cope with the realities of migrants’ attachment to people and places beyond the Norwegian borders? How is Norwegian development policy to engage with migrants’ contributions to development and peace-building initiatives in their countries of origin?
PRIO researchers Marta Bivand Erdal and Rojan Ezzati discuss these issues in a blog post as part of the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs' Refleks project. To read the blog post (in Norwegian), please follow this link.
A seminar on the same topic will be held at PRIO on Friday 16 November.
Marta Bivand Erdal has successfully defended her PhD in Human Geography at the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Oslo. The title of her dissertation is "Transnational ties and belonging: Remittances from Pakistani migrants in Norway".
Book Chapter in Return Migration and Wellbeing: Discourses, Policy-Making and Outcomes for Migrants and Their Families
Journal Article in Gender, Place and Culture
Book Chapter in Timespace and International Migration
Journal Article in Social Identities
Journal Article in Social Identities
Book Chapter in Migration, Transnationalism and Catholicism: Global Perspectives
Journal Article in Geoforum
Journal Article in Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies
Journal Article in Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies
Journal Article in Journal of International Migration and Integration
Journal Article in Polish Diaspora Review (Studia Migracyjne – Przegląd Polonijny)
Journal Article in Migration and Development
Journal Article in Population, Space and Place
PRIO Policy Brief
PRIO Policy Brief
PRIO Policy Brief
PRIO Policy Brief
Book Chapter in Africa's Return Migrants: the New Developers?
Journal Article in Migration Information Source
Journal Article in Ethnic and Racial Studies
Popular Article in Vårt Land
Book Chapter in Migrant Remittances In South Asia Social, Economic and Political Implications
Popular Article in Aftenposten
PRIO Policy Brief
PRIO Policy Brief
PRIO Policy Brief
PRIO Project Summary
PRIO Paper
Popular Article in Bergens Tidende
PRIO Policy Brief
Journal Article in International Migration
Journal Article in Comparative Migration Studies
Conference Paper
PRIO Policy Brief
PRIO Policy Brief
Journal Article in Comparative Migration Studies
Journal Article in International Migration
Popular Article in ISN Security Watch
Journal Article in Migration Studies
Journal Article in Studia Migracyjne-Przegląd Polonijny
Popular Article in Dagens Næringsliv
Journal Article in African Diaspora
Popular Article in Dagsavisen
Popular Article in Morgenbladet
Popular Article in Dagens Næringsliv
Popular Article in Ytring
Journal Article in Mobilities
PRIO Policy Brief
Book Chapter in Norge og det nye verdenskartet
Popular Article in Dagsavisen
Popular Article in Ytring
Popular Article in Dagbladet
Report - Other
PRIO Paper