International Online Symposium
15 September 2020
Meeting link | Meeting number: 120 411 0254 | Password: 1234
The symbolic and instrumental positioning of return migration within public discourse and migration agendas is changing significantly in recent years. Evidence suggests that return can be leveraged to serve nationalistic political projects as well as international geopolitical goals. In many contexts, different forms of forced return are appearing as assaults to human rights (e.g., the deportation of the Windrush immigrants and EU citizens in the UK, the recent forced return from Saudi Arabia to Ethiopia). Countries of origin that become home of, or rather new (temporary) settlements for, the returning migrants are often in a precarious bargaining position when it comes to negotiating return or managing re-settlement. In the Global South return is little researched, while there is growing evidence on the interconnectedness between migration patterns in these contexts and those in high-income countries. At the same time, different countries in the Global South as well as in the Middle East are emerging as gravity points for regional migration and return patterns.
This symposium brings together academics, policy makers and practitioners to tackle key developments and implications for research, policy and practice – in general, and in the framework of the major world changes and restructuring in the aftermath of COVID-19. IDMC's Chloe Sydney will speak about returns to internal displacement around the world.
Full agenda available here.