CPC and COMPAS to work on joint research project

CPC is shortly due to start working alongside another ESRC-funded research centre, the Centre on Migration, Policy and Society (COMPAS), based at the University of Oxford.

Professor Derek McGhee from CPC and Professor Bridget Anderson from COMPAS have been successful in their application for an ESRC Cross-Investment Award.

Due to begin in January 2013, the project will run for 12 months and is entitled: 'Tried and Trusted? The Role of NGOs in Asylum seeker and Irregular Migrant Voluntary Returns'.

This project will consider the fact that although the various voluntary return schemes in the UK are funded by the European Return Fund, the UK Border Agency and in some cases the International Organization, for migration it is non-governmental organisations (NGOs), such as Refugee Action and The Refugee Council, that administer these schemes.

It will include qualitative research involving expert interviews with facilitators, supporters and potential returnees. Through interviews, focus groups and participant observation the researchers will examine the role of local, regional and national level NGOs in these schemes as advisors and facilitators of voluntary return.

The project also includes a quantitative element as the researchers intend to work with the Home Office to create a database on the take-up of the various voluntary return schemes in the UK. This will allow them to find out which schemes are being used and by whom, and which countries we are returning asylum seekers and voluntary migrants to.

Posted 13/11/2012 15:37