Comparative Analysis of Reintegration Policies

Abstract

The term ‘reintegration policies’ is increasing in utility within academic and policy communities. However, exactly what constitutes a reintegration policy is unclear, and the term is being operationalised within a conceptual vacuum. We define reintegration policies as instruments intended to address the social, economic, and political needs of returnees to facilitate their reintegration into society. In doing so, we consider five elements within a reintegration policy: (1) the target population; (2) the policy goals; (3) instruments; (4) administration and funding; and (5) the implementers of the policy. Three contemporary reintegration policies are compared and used as examples: the EU-IOM Joint Initiative on Migrant Protection and Reintegration, the Netherlands Subsidy Scheme for Supporting Voluntary Departure, and the Philippines reintegration policy for Overseas Foreign Workers. The results show that contemporary reintegration policies are diverse and manage trade-offs between migration management-led and protection-led reintegration policies.