FACTORS OF SUSTAINABLE REFUGE RETURN: METHODOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF THE OPERATIONALIZATION OF VARIABLES

Abstract

This article describes theoretical and methodological problems of conceptualizing an essential concept of refugee’s discourse – “sustainable refugee return”. Interpretation of “post-war return” is a highly politically charged process in number of discourses, both for returnees and those who did not migrate. The challenging area is the notion of an unproblematic return “home”. Specifically, doubts remain both about the conditions and voluntariness of return, the ability of individual returnees to reintegrate in their home countries and regions, and the wider sustainability of the return process. The study explores the conditions that influence refugees decisions about protracted displacement on return home. The main attention is given to the complexity of refugee return and the need to consider developmental dimension of displacement to facilitate sustainable solutions. There is no universally accepted legal definition of sustainable repatriation. This reason creates a lot of challenges in comparing the effectiveness of different refugee programmes. The article outlines methodological difficulties in the organization of socio-psychological study of sustainable repatriation factors. First of all, it is necessary to point out practical difficulty of identifying criteria for the voluntariness of return. It is shown that even within the framework of voluntary repatriation, different levels of "voluntariness" should be distinguished: from “return because of the return itself” to “return on purpose of receiving financial assistance or other benefits”. It is agreed that the decision to repatriate should be viewed as a extremely non-unified, flexible, dynamic, multi-vector system that has multiple coordinates in refugee experience. Therefore, in socio-psychological research, sustainable return should be operationalized as a process which enables individuals to secure and sustain the political, economic, social and psychosocial conditions needed to maintain life, livelihood and dignity. In conclusion, identification of factors of sustainable return will remain an actual problem for many years, which increases attention to methodical aspects of determining these factors.