Returnee Reintegration:
Knowledge Gaps
Summing Up
MoRR Policy Review Workshop
13-14 December 2011
Presentation by
Susanne Schmeidl (TLO )
Nassim Majidi (Samuel Hall )
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Knowledge gaps
“The nature of reality is this: It is hidden, and it is
hidden, and it is hidden.”
– Rumi
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KNOWLEDGE GAPS
What does reintegration mean in Afghanistan today?
“What people say, what people do, and what they say they do are
entirely different things.” – Margaret Mead
WHERE returnees really are? Returnee monitoring – rural and urban
WHO returnees really are? Going beyond a policy category: timing of return
WHAT has been their return experience? Changing social environments
WHAT returnees are currently doing? Multiple push, pull, coping strategies
HOW do they perceive their reintegration process? Subjective indicators
HOW do they see their future? What are the scenarios?
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Practical Gaps / Research Needs
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Practical Gaps and Research Needs
1. Profiling of Key Returnee Areas: Trying to Unpack Trends of Return
Migration and Displacement

Secondary displacement

New trends of internal displacement (IDP trends)

Trends of anticipatory migration patterns (Dubai, India, Europe etc.)

Labour migration and mixed migration trends

Migration smuggling

Trafficking

Unaccompanied minors in the West
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Practical Gaps and Research Needs
2. Profiling of Underserved Key Returnee Areas

Comparison of returnees vs. host populations

Build on World Bank study on informal settlements in Kabul, extend to
major urban areas

See returnees as part of a whole

How is “parity” understood and defined?

An economic framework for understanding welfare parity

Referring to other studies – e.g. report on reintegration in Burundi
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Practical Gaps and Research Needs
3. Improving Understanding of Returnee-Migration Nexus

Return does not (and cannot) equal staying put

What are returnees’ own migration choices / coping strategies?

Understanding re-integration for Kuchis: double-edged sword


Forcing them to stay put , or

Forcing to resume nomadic lifestyle?
Understanding re-integration for other minorities: stateless people, e.g.
Jogi communities
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Practical Gaps and Research Needs
4. Behind Protection: Core Protection Priorities for Afghan Returnees &
IDPs

What are the key protection concerns?

Efforts to establish a protection monitoring system

What are the protection concerns that can be assessed and that can be
followed-up on concretely?

How can response to protection issues be organized and coordinated?
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Practical Gaps and Research Needs
5. Land and reintegration: Taking stock

Proper assessment about LAS

Feasibility of return to certain areas (e.g. Pashtuns in the North)

Revising current LAS policy for areas of origin only

Overall understanding of recent land-grabbing, tenure security etc.
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Practical Gaps and Research Needs
6. Adequate Assessment of National Programs

NSP, NABDP, NSDP etc.

How are they (indirectly) facilitating sustainable return and reintegration?

How are they contributing?

How could they contribute?

How to work through them or possibly reform them to perform better?

Cooperation of Afghan Ministries (MoRR, MRRD, MUDH etc.)
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Methodology Gaps
“If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called
research, would it?” – Albert Einstein
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METHODOLOGY GAPS
How can we reliably portray returnee realities?

Direct data gathering

Dynamic – longitudinal – research

Growing divide between quantitative and qualitative methods

Desk Review and Peer Review
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Contacts
Nassim Majidi, Director, Samuel Hall Consulting
nassim.majidi@samuelhall.org , Tel +93797978206
Susanne Schmeidl, Head Research/Peacebuilding, The Liaison Office (TLO)
susanne.schmeidl@tlo-afghanistan.org, Tel +93797367435
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