Date: January 22-23, 2026 Location: Akdeniz University, Antalya, Turkey Organized by: Horizon Europe GAPs project - https://www.returnmigration.eu/
Organisers: Maissam Nimer (Akdeniz University and Özyegin University), Susan Rottmann (Özyegin University), Soner Barthoma (Uppsala University)
Call for Papers
The "Navigating Return Migration: What Next? Diplomacy, Infrastructures, and Pathways Beyond" Conference is a symposium that aspires to critically investigate the multiple dimensions of return migration at the nexus of policy, infrastructures, migrant experiences, international diplomacy, and ethics. This event examines the ethical, historical, infrastructural, and diplomatic aspects of return migration, as well as alternative policies and narrative methodologies that center migrant experiences. It thus aims to bridge the gaps between policy frameworks, the implementation of returns on the ground, and the lived realities of migrants regarding return migration.
Academic literature reveals a significant disconnect between policy aspirations and migrant experiences in return migration governance. While policymakers frame returns as a "triple-win scenario" benefiting all stakeholders (Sinatti 2015) and a "durable solution" for displacement (UNHCR 2004), research demonstrates that both voluntary and involuntary returns often represent just another episode in ongoing migration trajectories (Gemi & Triandafyllidou 2020; Mencutek 2022). The coerced return concept refers to the repatriation of rejected asylum seekers, irregularized migrants, and refugees. By challenging the traditional voluntary–forced return dichotomy, the notion of coerced return underscores that coercion is inherent in all returns, though it manifests in different ways depending on the policy mechanisms employed – i.e., pushing, imposing, or incentivizing returns (Mencütek & Triandafyllidou, 2024). This disconnect is particularly evident in Assisted Voluntary Return and Reintegration (AVRR) programs, in which migrants frequently face coercion despite the "voluntary" label (Cleton & Chauvin 2020), and where reintegration assistance often fails to create sustainable outcomes due to inadequate return preparedness and unfavorable conditions in receiving communities ( Marino et al. 2022).
The complexity of return migration diplomacy emerges as a critical challenge in implementing effective return policies. The EU's external migration policies face limitations due to divergent interests between the EU and origin/transit countries, leading to a shift from formal agreements to informal arrangements (Micinski 2021; Freier et al. 2021). This dynamic is particularly pronounced in post-conflict contexts, where returns intersect with issues of stability, reconstruction, and power struggles (Schwartz 2019), often resulting in "strategic indifference" (Norman 2020) or "reversed conditionality" (Cassarino 2007). Additionally, the notion of “strategic non-engagement with contested return”(Nimer & Stel, 2024) has become increasingly relevant in this context, as states and international organizations avoid direct involvement in contested return processes, allowing for informal and less transparent mechanisms to prevail. This situation is further complicated by the broader geopolitical context and the inherent interdependency in international migration governance regimes, especially regarding South-to-South returns (Awad & Natarajan 2018; Zetter 2021).
Recent scholarship proposes novel conceptual frameworks for understanding return migration, including "return migration infrastructures" and "migration trajectories," which offer socio-spatial and temporal lenses to analyze the evolution of returns as part of broader mobility patterns (Schapendonk 2020). Following the “infrastructural turn” in migration studies (e.g. Xiang and Lindquist, 2014), the concept of return migration infrastructures sheds light on the relations, interactions, and contestations between a wide variety of actors and their roles, their (everyday) practices for implementing returns, as well as the materialities, spatialities and technologies that together shape – i.e. facilitate or undermine and contest – the daily operation of returns. The concept of “trajectories” emphasize the importance of considering migrants' shifting aspirations, social embeddedness, and decision-making processes (Drotbohm & Winters 2021). Both conceptual frameworks bring to the forefront important - and usually under discussed - aspects of return migration that can enrich the understanding of existing “gaps” between return and readmission policies, return governance and migrant agency and their everyday realities.
This closing conference of the international GAPs project aims to bring together researchers, practitioners, artists, refugee rights organizations to a two-day event with panels, roundtables, workshops, and presentations focusing on the politics, practices, and contestations over returns and the larger contexts – of migration, mobility and an eroding human rights regime.
The conference seeks to explore the following key themes related to returns and deportation while remaining open to additional topics and perspectives that may arise from submitted abstracts.
1. Dynamics of Return Infrastructures
How are returns implemented on the ground, what actors (both state and non-state), practices and processes, materials and technologies constitute them, and what gaps emerge between policies and lived realities?
Why do return migration infrastructures matter for understanding the complexities of return migration? What is the theoretical and empirical importance of the concept of return infrastructure?
2. Migration Diplomacy with a Focus on Return
How are migration agreements negotiated, and what do they reveal about global power asymmetries, particularly between the Global North and South?
How do norms, practices, and discourses about return migrate across regions, influencing local and global policies?
What are the broader implications of return agreements on international relations and migration governance?
3. Aspirations Before Return and Reintegration After Return
What drives returnees' motivations, expectations, and plans, and how do these evolve throughout the migration journey?
How do social, economic, and political factors influence post-return realities, from reintegration to potential re-migration?
4. Public Attitudes and Domestic Politics
How do public opinion, media narratives, and societal discourses shape return policies and their enforcement?
What role does return migration play in political mobilization, particularly in the context of electoral politics and debates on deportation?
5. Legal Aspects of Return
How do legal frameworks govern return migration, and what are the implications for returnees' rights and protections?
How does the European Union's new Migration Pact balance the EU's internal security concerns with the need for human dignity and protection for those returning?
6. Governance of Returns in the Global South
What unique challenges and opportunities define return governance in the Global South?
How do these contexts intersect with global migration dynamics and agreements?
We welcome empirical, theoretical, and methodological contributions from diverse disciplinary perspectives. Papers focusing on comparative approaches, regional case studies, or underexplored aspects of return migration are especially encouraged.
The conference will include plenary sessions, panel discussions, workshops, on topics such as methodological innovations and alternative pathways that align return policies with individuals' aspirations. It will also include a pre-publication book launch featuring key chapters from the GAPs edited volume. There will also be short video screenings followed by discussions on digital storytelling and anthologies pertaining to migrant experiences. Some of the panel contributions will be turned into joint publication(s) (TBC by each panel separately).
Submission Guidelines: Applicants are invited to submit an abstract of max. 250 words and a short bio of max. 150 words for each author/presenter (in English) via the following link https://forms.gle/1im2mSHjpchohLAz7 by May 31, 2025. For more information contact us at: gaps.return.migration@gmail.com.
Notification of accepted papers: July 15, 2025
References
Awad, I., & Natarajan, U. (2018). Migration myths and the Global South. The Cairo Review of Global Affairs, 10, 46–55.
Cassarino, J. P. (2007). Informalising readmission agreements in the EU neighbourhood. The International Spectator, 42(2), 179–196.
Cleton, L., & Chauvin, S. (2020). Performing freedom in the Dutch deportation regime. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 46(1), 297–313.
Drotbohm, H., & Winters, N. (2021). A shifting yet grounded transnational social field. Population, Space and Place, 27(5), e2421.
Freier, L. F., Micinski, N. R., & Tsourapas, G. (2021). Refugee commodification: The diffusion of refugee rent-seeking in the Global South. Third World Quarterly, 42(11), 2747–2766.
Gemi, E., & Triandafyllidou, A. (2021). Rethinking migration and return in Southeastern Europe. Taylor & Francis.
Marino, R., Mannersuo, A., Francisco, I., & Lietaert, I. (2023). At the crossroads between care and control: A cross-country comparison of assisted return. Journal of Refugee Studies, 36(3), 337–358.
Mencutek, Z. (2021). Governing practices and strategic narratives for the Syrian refugee returns. Journal of Refugee Studies, 34(2), 2804–2826.
Mencutek, Z. (2022). Governing practices and strategic narratives for Syrian refugee returns. Journal of Refugee Studies, 34(3), 2804–2826.
Mencütek, Z. (2024). Conceptual complexity about return migration of refugees/asylum seekers. Journal of Asian and African Studies, 59(7), 2125–2138.
Micinski, N. R. (2021). Threats, deportability and aid: The politics of refugee rentier states and regional stability. [Publication details missing – please specify publisher or journal].
Stel, N., & Nimer, M. (2024). Country dossier Lebanon: WP4 – Return migration governance in the African and Middle Eastern regions and the role of the EU (v.1). GAPs Working Paper 2024:4.
Schapendonk, J. (2020). Finding ways through Eurospace: West African movers re-viewing Europe from the inside. Oxford: Berghahn Books.
Schwartz, S. (2019). Home, again: Refugee return and post-conflict violence in Burundi. International Security, 44(2), 110–145.
Sinatti, G. (2015). Return migration as a win-win-win scenario? Ethnic and Racial Studies, 38(2), 275–291.
UNHCR. (2004). Statistical yearbook 2004: Durable solutions and new displacement. Geneva: UNHCR.
Xiang, B., & Lindquist, J. (2014). Migration infrastructure. International Migration Review, 48(1_suppl), 122–148.
Zetter, R. (2007). More labels, fewer refugees: Remaking the refugee label in an era of globalization. Journal of Refugee Studies, 20(2), 172–192.
