This study aims to identify the conditions that influence the decisions by refugees in protracted displacement regarding return to their home country: when, why and by whom are decisions on return and other coping strategies made?

In this dissertation to obtain the degree of Doctor at Maastricht University, Marieke van Houte shows that the expectations on which migration and development policies are based only apply to a small minority of returnees, who are not the group that is targeted by these policies.

The study was conceived and commissioned as part of the Australian Government Department of Immigration and Border Protection’s Irregular Migration Research Programme and supported by the IOM and is one of the largest comparative projects on this topic in recent years.