Intergovernmental relations and return - Part 1: Measuring enforced return to Europe

Abstract

Each year the Member States of the European Union issue around 500,000 return decisions to persons who do not, or no longer, have legal stay. A return decision requires the person to leave the territory of the state issuing the return decision and to go to a country where he/she does have legal stay, usually his/her country of citizenship. If persons do not leave themselves, they risk being returned by force. The implementation of assisted and forced return often requires cooperation by the countries of citizenship of the person receiving the return decision, and thus partially depends on the intergovernmental relations between EU+ (EU Member States plus Norway, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom) and non-EU+ countries. The WODC has conducted three interrelated studies on the influence of these relations on return. In Part 1 of the study, the results of which are reported here, we explore the validity and reliability of Eurostat return data. The aim is to investigate whether and how Eurostat return data can be used to answer research questions on factors influencing return rates across EU Member States and across third countries. We pose two research questions: What can be said about the validity and reliability of the EU data on returns and return decisions? If there are issues pertaining to the validity and reliability of EU data on returns and return decisions, what methodologies are suitable to research the effects of return frameworks on return outcomes and/or to identify differences between comparable corridors in the level and/or type (e.g., forced vs. voluntary) of return? CONTENT Introduction Return frameworks and plausible effects on enforced return Methods Results Conclusion See External links for Part 2 and 3 of this reserch.