Sustainable refugee return: Triggers, constraints and lessons on addressing the development challenges of forced displacement

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?

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The study outlines key policy and strategic lessons as follows:

  • Forced displacement situations are likely to be protracted, and responses to emergencies need to anticipate this.
  • Since most forced displacement situations are protracted, refugees manage better if they have opportunities to enhance self-reliance through participation in the economy of the host country.
  • Both displacement and return is increasingly to urban areas.
  • Forced displacement situations often have broader regional impacts.
  • Comprehensive and durable return require related repatriation, reintegration, rehabilitation, and reconstruction processes that take place within an overarching framework of institutional collaboration between humanitarian, development, government and private sector actors.
  • Refugees are ‘purposive actors’ and the decision to return is typically made after comparing information about conditions and prospects in the host country with those in the country of origin.

You can read the study attached or visit the website of the World Bank.

Publication Date:
Tue 03 Nov 2015
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