Voices of Return: Leveraging the Influence of Returnees in Migration Information Campaigns

As part of the Awareness Raising and Information Campaigns on the Risks of Irregular Migration in Pakistan – II (PARIM-II) project, this report explores the role of returnees in migration decision-making processes. It investigates their potential engagement in the design and implementation of migration information and awareness-raising campaigns.

Whether forcibly or voluntarily returned, returnees are living testimonials of both the challenges and opportunities associated with migration, and their experiences can significantly influence the perceptions of migration among their community members. In this sense, not only can they affect potential migrants’ migration intentions and behaviours, but they can also play an important and direct role in the implementation of migration information campaigns. This report explores these pathways of influence on migration decision-making and builds on those conclusions to discuss the potential role of returnees in migration information campaigns. It also takes into account challenges and ethical considerations for engaging returnees in campaigns.