Introducing the project

Kick-off meeting

A message from the GAPs Project Coordinators

Zeynep Şahin-Mencütek (BICC), Önver A. Cetrez (Uppsala University) and Soner Barthoma (Uppsala University)

Here is an extract from the message:

As project coordinators, we are proud of having formed a large and very diverse consortium that has come together to study return migration and return policies in different regions of the world with the aim of contributing to changes in existing policies, practices and public attitudes in the field of returns migration. The GAPs project has already started its research and activities in March 2023 with a very smooth kick-off that took place at Uppsala University. During the first 6 months, all team members have made extraordinary efforts to get the project up and running smoothly in all countries. We are pleased to see that work package leaders have co-created detailed guidelines for fieldwork and for their expected outputs, organized several workshops to elaborate on concepts and methodologies, and started to test new tools for the implementation of standardized data collection. We look forward to the findings of fieldwork and outreach activities in the coming period.

Coming soon - Voices of GAPs

A series of short clips that will feature the people and minds behind this ambitious research project: Get to know a few of the participating scholars from the GAPs research consortium, with 17 partners in 12 countries and a range of different disciplinary backgrounds: from sociology to law, political science to economics, and geography to psychology.  

Learn about their specific research angles and questions. And hear about their (personal) motivations to advance research and public debate on return migration and readmission policies.

The videos are produced by Migration Matters, a Berlin-based NGO and partner in the GAPs consortium. Migration Matters works at the nexus of education, media, and civil society. With a range of diverse media productions they make research, original perspectives, and migrant and refugee voices accessible and engaging to support particularly host societies in having more nuanced and evidence-based conversations about migration and belonging. 

The videos to introduce the project GAPs and the “Voices of GAPs”- series will be released in the course of the next weeks via social media. Make sure to follow us and stay tuned:

https://www.instagram.com/gapsreturns

https://www.facebook.com/GAPSRETURNS

https://www.linkedin.com/company/gaps-returns-migration

https://www.twitter.com/gapsreturns

Introducing the GAPs Consortium

The GAPs Consortium consists of renowned universities, independent research institutes and organizations from a variety of countries affected by migration. 

GAPs consortium includes 17 consortium organizations and institutions in the following 12 countries: Sweden, Nigeria, Germany, Morocco, Netherlands, Afghanistan, Poland, Georgia, Turkey, Tunisia, Greece and Iraq.

Lead partner: Uppsala University

GAPs is hosted by Uppsala University at the Centre for Religion and Society Research (CRS), an interdisciplinary research centre at the Department of Theology, Uppsala University. 

Uppsala University (UU) is the scientific as well as administrative coordinator of the project. UU is the oldest university among the Nordic countries, founded in 1477, and is consistently being placed among the top 100 in international rankings, such as the Academic Ranking of World Universities (# 60 in 2016). World-class research and high quality education pursued at UU benefit society and business on a global level. The university is characterized by diversity and breadth, with international frontline research at nine faculties counting 24 600 full-time equivalent students; 6 000 employees, whereof about 1 800 teachers and researchers (including some 700 full professors, of which 27 % are women). Comprehensive peer reviews and rankings consistently show that research and teaching at Uppsala University is of the highest international standard, which is also reinforced by the fact that about 54% of the research is funded by external sources, not least from the EU.

The Religion and Society Research Centre (CRS) is an interdisciplinary research Centre at the Department of Theology, focusing on processes of religious and social change. CRS earlier hosted the Horizon 2020 program RESPOND (www.respondmigration.com) also involving several of the researchers from GAPs.

Return migration is a complex process. A short video gives a first insight into GAPs - the new multidisciplinary Horizon Europe project that launched in March 2023 and runs until 2026. In the video, you can learn in less than a minute what the project will focus on and how our research will contribute to making return policies and practices more effective, fair and dignified for all. Find the video on social media and our website and share it with others.

Spotlight on… Jordan

In each newsletter, this section focuses on an aspect concerning the issue of return in different countries. In this newsletter, the focus is on Jordan, one of the countries within the GAPs consortium.