Publications

The Special Issue "Processes of Migration Returns and Reintegration: A Comparative Perspective," comprising 11 articles, has been published in International Migration.

Guest edited by our colleague Zeynep Şahin-Mencütek together with Richa Shivakoti (Toronto Metropolitan University), the Special Issue brings together leading scholars working on migration return and reintegration, offering a comparative perspective across a wide range of geographical contexts and migrant groups.

The collection advances current debates by examining return and reintegration beyond conventional policy discussions, highlighting migrants' agency, governance arrangements, and the diverse institutional contexts shaping reintegration processes. It also contributes to ongoing theoretical discussions while presenting empirical evidence from countries across the Middle East, Africa, Asia, and the Balkans.

We are particularly pleased that the Special Issue features several contributions drawing on data collected through the RE-MIG project and its predecessor, underscoring bicc's long-term research on migration return and reintegration. In total, five colleagues who have been part of the RE-MIG project contributed to this collection:

Osman Bahadır Dinçer and Zeynep Şahin-Mencütek examine refugee return, reintegration, and citizenship practices in post-conflict Syria. Ruth Vollmer and Clara Schmitz-Pranghe trace the interactions between stratified reintegration trajectories and street-level implementation of reintegration assistance. Zeynep Şahin-Mencütek, Hidayet Sıddıkoğlu, and Soner Barthoma analyze return governance and diplomacy between Türkiye and Afghanistan. Martin Kuka and Kalie Kerpaci explore the experiences of returned migrants running businesses as outsiders in Albania's home market.

Beyond these bicc contributions, the Special Issue includes excellent articles by internationally renowned scholars on return and reintegration in countries including Nepal, the Philippines, Nigeria, Guinea, Senegal, Sri Lanka, Ethiopia, and others—making it one of the most comprehensive comparative collections on the topic published in recent years.

Read the Special Issue here.