GAPs Project

GAPs project

De-centring the Study of Migrant Returns and Readmission Policies in Europe and Beyond – A Horizon Research Project

Abstract:

GAPs is a comprehensive study on the drivers of return policies and barriers/enablers in international cooperation on returns. The project examines the disconnects between expectations of return policies and their actual outcomes by de-centering the dominant, one-sided understanding of “return policymaking.” GAPs will: a) scrutinize the shortcomings of the EU’s governance of returns internally and externally; b) examine the complex interactions of policy makers and local actors involved in return processes to shed light on cooperation failures; c) analyse the perspectives of migrants themselves to understand their knowledge of return policies, aspirations and experiences. By taking a close look at governance, cooperation and actor’s agency, the project is able to suggest new avenues for international cooperation, develop recommendations for stakeholders and explore alternative pathways to returning migrants. The project combines its decentering approach with three innovative concepts: a focus on return migration infrastructures that enable GAPs to analyze governance fissures; an analysis of return migration diplomacy to understand how relations among EU MSs and third countries hinder cooperation on returns; and a trajectory approach that uses a socio-spatial and temporal lens to understand migrant agency. The project achieves its aims via multi-disciplinary, qualitative and quantitative comparative research in 11 countries in Europe, Africa and the broader Middle East (including Afghanistan). The project involves wide-ranging and innovative impacts, including the creation of an interactive data repository on returns, a return cooperation index, return governance indicators, policy briefs and workshops, the formation of stakeholder expert panels, a digital storytelling and video series, the launching of Massive Open Online Course (MOOC), as well as open access policy and scholarly publications.

GAPs project is coordinated by Uppsala University (Sweden) and Bonn International Centre for Conflict Studies (Germany). In addition to Özyeğin University, the project’s consortium partners include: Radboud University (Netherlands), Hammurabi Human Rights Organisation (Iraq), Swedish Research Institute in Istanbul (Turkey), The Hashemite University (Jordan), National Center for Social Research (Greence), Association Migration Internationale (Morocco), Ryerson University (Canada), The University of Glasgow (UK), University of Nigeria, Nsukka (Nigeria), Bilim Research and Social Studies (Afghanistan), Migration Matters (Germany), University of Warsaw (Poland), Science-Policy Interface Agency (Germany) University of Soulusse (Tunisia).

Assistant Professor Dr. Susan Beth Rottmann is the Primary Investigator for GAPs at Özyeğin University. She will be working with Assistant Professor Dr. Maissam Nimer (as senior researcher) and Dr. Fatma Yilmaz Elmas (as post-doctoral researcher).

Dr. Rottmann and her team will principally conduct research aiming to understand how migrants in transit countries (pre-return phase) consider, decide, and communicate decisions about return in the context of broader im/mobility experiences (as a lead of WP7).

The objectives of this work include modeling return trajectories with attention to how trajectories, onward movements, and re-orientations as well as periods of rest and intermediate forms of settlement emerge; identifying the role of diaspora organizations and transnational networks in shaping migration trajectories, including returns; and examining migrants’ potentially agentive actions.

The findings will have an impact through creating and disseminating policy briefs and organizing an exchange workshop as well as two thematic reports on the findings of the research.

The team will also prepare all dissemination tools (webpage, social media, brochures, posters, videos, infographics), lead on Stakeholder expert panel formation, produce an anthology book of life stories and organize a final conference (in Istanbul) targeting policymakers and key stakeholders.

Project Start Date: March 2023

Project End Date: March 2026

Website: Upcoming
Information: Susan Beth Rottmann / susan.rottmann@ozyegin.edu.tr

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