GAPS - EU project on the return process for migrants in Europe

GAPs: Decentring the Study of Migrant Returns and Readmission Policies in Europe and Beyond

The EU-project GAPs will contribute to an efficient and coordinated return process for migrants in Europe. The project runs between 01.03.2023 – 28.02.2026

The EU and its Member States face many difficult challenges in returning rejected asylum seekers and "illegal" migrants to their countries of origin or third countries. Around a third of rejected asylum seekers in the EU return to their countries of origin – less than 30% of whom do so voluntarily.

Several published reports attribute the shortcomings of return policy to a set of internal and external factors, including inconsistent interpretations of EU rules, lack of proper links between return and asylum policies, and lack of policy harmonisation and coordination between Member States (ECA 2021; EC 2020; EC COM 2018). To address these challenges, the European Commission (EC), in the new Pact on Migration and Asylum, (EC 2020: 2) calls for a clear division of responsibilities for ‘swift and effective return’.

The overall objective of the "GAPs" project is to examine expectations and outcomes of EU return policies. GAPs aims to examine the return process for migrants by studying the policy, governance and experiences of and between different actors, including the migrants themselves. GAPs examines the shortcomings of the EU's return governance with both its internal and external dimensions, analyses obstacles to international cooperation and highlights migrants' perspectives to understand their knowledge of return policies, aspirations and experiences. By looking more closely at governance, cooperation and the actions of different actors, the project can propose new avenues for international cooperation, contribute with recommendations for stakeholders and explore alternative pathways to return for migrants.

The problem, however, is what constitutes effective return and a coordinated approach, for whom and how effectiveness will (or can) be measured. Policy work and scientific research show that the EU needs to cooperate with transit and origin countries as well as migrants to meet its return and readmission objectives. However, third countries often show reluctance to cooperate with the EU and its Member States, in particular when it comes to signing readmission agreements. From the perspective of migrants, policies focus too little on their concerns, experiences and dynamics of the migration journey. There are thus gaps between the dynamics of migration processes, the priorities of return policy and the interests of the parties expected to cooperate.

GAPs applies a multidisciplinary, qualitative and quantitative comparative research approach, with fieldwork in 13 countries in Europe (Germany, Sweden, Poland, Greece), Africa (Nigeria, Tunisia, Morocco) and the wider Middle East (Turkey, Georgia, Iraq, Jordan, Afghanistan). Data collection consists of both desk research as well as ethnographic work in the selected countries.

The GAPs consortium consists of 17 partners and is coordinated in collaboration between Uppsala University and the Bonn International Centre for Conflict Studies (BICC). The project starts in March 2023 and runs until March 2026.

Fieldwork will be conducted in 12 countries: Sweden, Nigeria, Germany, Morocco, the Netherlands, Afghanistan, Poland, Georgia, Turkey, Tunisia, Greece and Iraq.

Project leader: Önver Cetrez, professor i religionspsykologi, Uppsala universitet, onver.cetrez@teol.uu.se

The project's external website