Sustainable return: Reintegration, reconstruction and development

Reconstruction and the relief-development gap

Large return movements typically take place in the aftermath of devastating natural disasters or armed conflicts that have destroyed homes, roads, farms, businesses and public institutions. Although refugees and IDPs often welcome the chance to return to their homes and are not daunted by the struggle they know accompanies return, the absence of adequate infrastructure, social services, land and natural resources inevitably poses a challenge to the sustainability of returns. The arrival of large numbers of returnees can reduce residents’ access to already meagre supplies of natural resources and public services, and create communal tension. The small grants or assistance kits returnees may receive from humanitarian agencies are rarely if ever enough to enable the displaced to reintegrate and re-establish livelihoods. By design, UNHCR’s ‘Quick Impact Projects’ attempt to address immediate needs in return communities; unfortunately, they often do not function as a long-term investment in development. In fact, some critics have suggested that Quick Impact Projects often have a detrimental impact on long term development. This gap between humanitarian assistance and the instigation of viable, long-term development programs is well-documented, but rarely bridged. The resulting impoverishment exacerbates social grievances, hinders the establishment of law and order, and heightens the prospect of fragile post-conflict societies returning to violence. A crucial aspect of averting further violence and making returns sustainable is creating or reviving accountable governance institutions that represent all members of society on an equitable basis.

Just as it is now widely accepted amongst practitioners that assistance programs must benefit not only returnees but the entire community in return areas, researchers are increasingly open to studying the impact of the return and reintegration process on not only the displaced, but also on their broader social networks. A significant number of academic studies and evaluative reports have been completed that synthesise the best practices arising from reintegration, rehabilitation and reconstruction projects in return communities worldwide. However, there remains a need for further research into the impact of return on the communities that hosted displaced populations, sometimes for generations. Although largely unassessed, it can be assumed that the relatively rapid departure of large numbers of displaced persons, and the humanitarian assistance they attracted, is likely to have significant consequences, both positive and negative, on host communities.

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Psychosocial aspects of return and reintegration

The return and reintegration processes present complex psychosocial challenges that are beginning to be examined by researchers in greater depth. For example, many young refugees and IDPs grew up in urban centres and cannot remember their rural ‘homes’. In many cases they are loath to give up their urban lives and lack the skills that will help them prosper in the country, circumstances which complicate their prospects of integration. Displaced persons returning to communities where atrocities took play may be dealing with psychological trauma that precludes reintegration. For these survivors, return may not necessarily be permanent. Rather, it may be an opportunity to reflect on the past and pay respect to the dead (for e.g. Pollack 2003).

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