Return, reintegration and political restructuring in Afghanistan: survey of return migration to Kabul and Kandahar, 2022

*This report is dedicated to all of our Afghan research participants and colleagues who have once again been compelled to flee their homes, families, and loved ones since this data was gathered.

While there has been an assumption in media and political discourses that migrants, refugees and displaced people intend to stay in the countries to which they go, recent years have seen increasing transnational and gendered return mobilities to conflict and post-conflict countries. In this context, the phenomenon of “return” migration has not only become a crucial component of the sociology of migration but is also an emerging issue of economic and political importance in many developing and post-conflict countries and regions.

This report presents the preliminary findings of our survey (n= 198) and semi-structured interviews (n=28) that were carried out with returnees in Kabul and Kandahar in 2020/21, to better understand the reasons why the conflict-induced Afghan diaspora (men and women) from the neighbouring countries, Europe and North America have returned to a politically and economically unstable Afghanistan since 2001.

Funded by the Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) - UKRI - grant ID AH/S004025/1.