Implementing the return of irregular migrants and rejected asylum seekers is known to pit host states against migrants. However, return also entails conflicting interests between host states and the countries of origin of these migrants. Liberal European states are not free to send migrants back to the country of origin on their own but depend on its political goodwill and practical cooperation to clarify the migrants' identity and get the necessary travel documents in order.
This conference is the final conference for NORMS, an international research project that has spent four years studying this type of issue. Among other things, we have looked at how state bureaucrats in Europe and beyond seek to legitimise or delegitimise returns and promote conflicting norms in a cross-border and highly charged political field. We conducted fieldwork in Norway, at the EU level, in Ethiopia, Iraq, and Gambia. We have also examined the monitoring of forced returns and studied forced returns as a historical phenomenon in the Nordic countries, to name a few.
The conference brings together international and national experts to shed light on the topic, and you are warmly welcome.
Programme
09:45–10:00
Coffee and registration
10:00–10:15
Welcome to the closing conference of the NORMS project
Erlend Paasche, Institute for Social Research
10:15–10:35
Key-note speech: "Internal and external dimensions to return and readmission"
Mari Juritsch, EU Return Coordinator
10:35–11:05
Panel I: Return and readmission seen from Oslo, Brussels and Addis Ababa
- Mari Juritsch, EU Return Coordinator
- Anita Vardøy, Norwegian Ministry of Justice and Public Security
- Asnake Kefale, Ethiopian Forum for Social Science
- Tefera Negash Gebregziabher, Erasmus University Rotterdam
- Moderator: Florian Trauner, Vrije Universiteit Brussel
11:05–11:35
Q & A moderated by Florian Trauner
11:35–12:15 – Lunch
12:15–12:35
Key-note speech: "Cooperation with third countries: Perils and pitfalls in EU policy"
Catherine Wollard, director, European Council on Refugees and Exiles
12:35–13:05
Panel II: Third countries and (in)effective return: Clashing interests or colliding norms?
- Catherine Woollard, director, European Council on Refugees and Exiles
- TBI
- Katja Franko, University of Oslo
- Philipp Stutz, Vrije Universiteit Brussel
- Moderator: Nicole Ostrand, University for Continuing Education Krems
13:05–13:35
Q & A moderated by Nicole Ostrand
13:35–13:45
Closing remarks and future directions
Erlend Paasche, Institute for Social Research
13:45–14:00
Mingling
