The return of refugees and internally displaced persons: From coercion to sustainability?

This essay seeks to analyse the impact of international policy-making on the patterns of refugee return in Bosnia and examine the problems of making imposed returns sustainable in the long term. It highlights that the Office of the High Representative's award of the Bonn powers enabled the prioritization of the return of refugees and internally displaced people to areas in which they would constitute ethnic minorities. These policies achieved a marked impact on the ground but these positive gains need to be seen in the context of the limitations of the instrumental use of return as a state-building mechanism. The refugee-return agenda has often meshed poorly with the economic and social needs of Bosnian society and has also institutionalized the weakness and isolation of some of Bosnia's most vulnerable citizens – the alleged targets of these policies.