ReMiCom · The Challenges of Return Migration in Africa in the Age of Complex Emergencies: Comparing Multilevel Governance Systems in Ethiopia and Nigeria
Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
- Duration
- 2020-11-01 → 2022-10-31
- EU contribution
- €224,934
- Participants
- 1
- Scheme
- MSCA-IF
Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.
Results in brief
The Challenges of Return Migration in Africa in the Age of Complex Emergencies: Comparing Multilevel Governance Systems in Ethiopia and Nigeria
This ‘ReMiCom’ MSCA fills the research/policy gaps in the field of return migration in Africa, against the backdrop of the migration 'crisis' in Europe, increases in the EU’s external border security in order to curb irregular migration, and the complex challenges faced by migrants transiting through Libya to Europe. It uses a multilevel governance (MLG) framework to explore the decision-making processes/politics of returning stranded migrants from Libya to their countries of origin in the context of interdependence between governmental actors and nongovernmental organizations at the local, national, regional, and global levels. The focus of this MSCA is important for migration governance in Africa because few previous studies have given attention to the effects of MLG on return migration to, or on, the continent, or to the critical linkages of institutional complexity with intergovernmental coordination and policy coherence. This project addresses these concerns using the case of the return of stranded migrants in Libya to their home countries of Ethiopia and Nigeria in order to provide important lessons on how multiple governance authorities with different ideas and power resources interact to shape return migration policies/politics, how these multilevel policies/politics affect sustainable reintegration of returnee migrants, and how these migrants navigate complex MLG dynamics. The objectives of this MSCA have been to (a) Understand the nature and scope of return migration across complex multi-level contexts in Africa; (b) Investigate the complex interactions and negotiations that occur between returnee migrants and MLG actors; (c) Analyse implications of these interactions and the conflict and cooperation therefrom for returnee migrants’ reintegration; (d) Explore the strategies returnees use to negotiate between and among multiple level structures to assert their status as citizens; and (e) Investigate the gender ramifications of return migration.
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
This project fills the research and policy gaps in the understudied phenomenon of return migration in Africa, against the backdrop of recent migration 'crisis' in Europe, the increasing securitization of the EU's external borders to curb irregular migration, and the complex emergencies faced by migrants transiting through Libya to Europe. It uses a multilevel governance (MLG) framework to explore the decision-making processes/politics of returning stranded migrants from Libya to their countries of origin in the context of interdependence between governmental actors and nongovernmental organizations at the local, national, regional, and global levels. The few previous studies on return migration in Africa have given relatively little attention to these critical linkages and their reciprocal constructions, in the integrated manner of the MLG approach. The project explores the effects of MLG dynamics on return migrants' reintegration, and the effects of institutional complexity on intergovernmental coordination and policy coherence. The empirical study focuses on Ethiopia and Nigeria, two key priority countries under the EU-IOM Joint Initiative for Migrant Protection and Reintegration, which have served as major countries of origin for migrants and which have witnessed the return of migrants from Libya. The project uses structured focused comparison and process tracing research design, and qualitative methods involving in-depth interviews with returnees and key informants, and document analysis. Consistent with the understanding of MLG as a complex interaction between multiple configurations of actors with divergent interests, ideas and power resources, this study will analyze the mechanisms through which multiple governance authorities interact to shape return migration policies/politics, how these multilevel policies/politics affect sustainable reintegration of returnee migrants, and the strategies used by these migrants to navigate complex MLG dynamics.
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
- UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH WALES PRIFYSGOLDE CYMRU · PontypriddCoordinatorUnited Kingdom
Links
Data: CORDIS, © European Union