Friday 13 April 2012 at 09:00 - 10:30


CITIES, MOBILITY, PLACE AND SPACE ROUNDTABLE 1, SPORTS HALL 2 AFGHANISTAN AND MIGRATION: NEW ISSUES AND REALTIES POST 2001


This panel session is dedicated to the understanding and analysis of Afghan migration dynamics and realities, with a particular focus on the post-2001 context. Over the last thirty years the conflict in Afghanistan has produced one of the largest refugee populations in the world. Refugees and other forcibly displaced people are only part of the complex migration picture in and from Afghanistan, large numbers also migrate to work and study in neighbouring countries and elsewhere in the Middle-East. Despite the volume of migration from Afghanistan, it has received relatively scant attention from social scientists. This panel brings together four scholars who are actively involved in current research with Afghan migrants who have migrated to Europe, and encompasses the whole migration trajectory from the decision to leave, to return and further onward migration. The first paper addresses the main motivations impelling Afghans to leave their country during the last decade. The focus will then shift to ideas and realities of return, with a paper looking at the way in which those ideas and realities intersect with Afghan transnational activities and integration in Europe.


Return and reintegration policies will be the focus of the third


paper which analyses return to Afghanistan from Iran, Pakistan and the UK. The panel concludes by addressing deportation from Europe, including a consideration of why those who have been deported then choose to migrate again.


Nicolini, M.A. A Decade of Afghan Migration: A Study of Decision Making Process


Afghanistan has a long history of both voluntary and forced migration exacerbated by decades of conflicts, poverty and environmental calamities. If in the ‘80s and ‘90s the principal destinations were Pakistan and Iran, after 2001 Afghans have become attracted by an increasing number of new destinations like Indonesia and Australia. However, a large number of Afghans still headed towards Europe with the UK being one of the favorite destinations.


In this paper I look at migration from Afghanistan during the last decade focusing in particular on the decision making process. Afghans who left their country have been impelled by a mix of reasons, ranging form lack of security to the search for better economic opportunities. This reflects a broader trend emerged in the last decade defined as ‘mixed-migration’ (Van Hear 2011). Nonetheless, factors affecting the migration decision making process are not only structural ones like insecurity or poverty for example. Individual attitudes and indeed the personal impulse to migrate are as much as relevant in this case. People who migrate are not a uniformed, homogeneous unit of analysis as migration decision are highly affected by the individual’s own identity shaped by gender, age or class.


Through the analysis of three different groups of Afghans exiled during the last decade, that of minors, women and young men I investigate how migration decisions vary in accordance with both external factors and individual characteristics.


The fieldwork has been carried both in London and in Afghanistan with families and relatives of those migrated in the UK.


Majidi, N. The Impact of Return Policies


Through case studies of 3 categories of return – both voluntary and forced return of refugees and migrants – this presentation will assess the longer-term effects of return policies and their impact on individuals and communities, on the one hand, and on the work of institutional actors on the other.


In his book Theorising return migration: the conceptual approach to return migrants revisited, Cassarino (2004) identifies the influence of international relations theory in bridging the gap between transnational and return migration scholars, by emphasizing that ‘the migration story continues during migration and after return’. It is this migration story that I intend to shed light on, from an IR perspective, by focusing on the experience of return – whether voluntary or forced return – of Afghans from Iran, Pakistan and the UK.


I am finishing up my fieldwork on return and reintegration policies, questioning the design and impact of state policies of return (repatriation, voluntary return and deportations). I have interviewed large groups of these 3 categories of returnees (between 2007 and 2010 in various provinces of Afghanistan), then gone back to some of the same people this summer (2011) to assess the longer-term effects and impacts of return policies. Most of the discourse is today being built on an abstract concept of reintegration; I am analyzing this concept in the Afghan


241 Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris – Sciences Po City University London


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