Events

On 8 July, Ruth Vollmer will present the paper on "Female Reintegration Trajectories in the Western Balkans: Strengths, Vulnerabilities, and Diversity" at the European Conference on Politics and Gender at Ghent University. 

Return migration and reintegration processes involve gendered and highly politicised practices for men and women around the world. On a global scale, every country is a return country. However, the experiences of return and reintegration vary based on gender, age, ethnic group/race, social and economic status, rural or urban origin, and many more identity characteristics that inform the migration experience and constraint mobility. Current public policies and opportunity structures frame and reframe who can migrate and who is entitled to social welfare support in the host or returning countries. Being a female or a male returnee substantively defines one’s access to support services, employment opportunities, and family relations. The gendered dynamics of return migration and reintegration governance often align with conventional notions that associate migration with men and women remaining in their home countries. In practice, however, returnee groups are diverse, comprising, for example, families, unaccompanied minors, aging migrants, migrants with significant health problems, victims of human trafficking, etc. This panel addresses the differences in such frameworks of reintegration governance, the impact of migration policies, and the gendered social practices of returnees internationally. We examine the return and reintegration of gendered practices from the European Union and transit countries to Serbia, Nigeria, Nepal, and more. The papers share diverse perspectives on migrant women abroad and returnees’ experiences of navigating politically constructed structures and limitations in accessing support. The panel provides empirically rich and theoretically novel approaches to researching return and reintegration from gender and political perspectives. The discussion aims to present different cases and trace similarities in global gendered politics of migration, return, and reintegration governance.

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