Female reintegration trajectories in the Western Balkans: strengths, vulnerabilities, and diversity

This paper will provide empirically-based insights on gendered - specifically female - reintegration trajectories after return to four countries in the Western Balkans region (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo and Serbia). It aims to highlight in how far subjective experiences and aspirations of female returned migrants differ from those of men, specifically looking at return decision-making, the time immediately after return, social and economic relations after return and plans for the future. It will do so by drawing on the phenomenological analysis of 387 qualitative interviews with a diverse sample of returned migrants (about half of them women), conducted between 2019 and 2022 in the four countries as part of the project “Trajectories of Reintegration: The impacts of migration and return on social change”. Additionally, the analysis will account for factors beyond gender, namely type of migration and type of return, whether migration and return occurred in a family or individual setting, return to rural or urban locality, and socio-economic status. There is growing awareness of the gendered and intersectional differences regarding return and reintegration experiences. In this context, the analysis will show when and how return and return governance exacerbate gendered vulnerabilities and under what conditions women face similar or less challenges in terms of their ‘reintegration’ compared with men. Building on these findings, the paper will discuss potential needs and implications of factoring gender more strongly into reintegration governance and assistance. Recent projects specifically supporting female returnees in the Western Balkans region funded by German development cooperation it will be drawn on the exemplify the discussion.