Abstract:
The institutional aspect of return migration has received little attention in the theoretical and
empirical literature on return migration. This research fills the apparent lacuna by unearthing
institutional challenges to multi-stakeholder coordination, at different spatial levels in crisis situations
and negative effects on reintegration of forcibly returned migrants. We use the evacuation
of Ghanaian migrants from Libya who occupied very low socio-economic positions,
experienced racism and discrimination, including physical attacks and arbitrary arrests in 2011,
as a case study to understand institutional challenges to forced return when migrants’ carefully
tailored plans are thrown into disarray and they are forced to return unprepared. This study
employed mainly qualitative research methods among six different categories of actors and
engaged an adaptation of Cassarino’s “returnee’s preparedness framework” to expand theoretical
understandings of return migration from the institutional perspective and to highlight what
can go wrong when institutions are unprepared for involuntary returnees.
