International norm dynamics in return and readmission: a research agenda

The EU has struggled to achieve its objectives in the field of return and readmission, most commonly assessed through the number of returned migrants. One reason for this is the unwillingness of non-EU states to readmit, conventionally explained in terms of their high material costs, such as the loss of remittances, and insufficient incentives to do so. This Special Issue seeks to move beyond such a transactional paradigm by engaging with constructivist approaches in International Relations. Without dismissing the importance of material interests, it opens analytical space for examining the norms that underpin international practice in this field. Particular attention is paid to the EU’s efforts to institutionalize the obligation to readmit irregular migrants as an international norm. Such norm entrepreneurship operates through the framing of return and readmission, through codifying the obligation to readmit in law, and through cultivating professional networks as an arena of persuasion and socialisation. At the same time, constructivist IR scholarship provides valuable tools for understanding the responses of non-EU countries, and their contestation of the norm to readmit. Examining the international norm dynamics of return and readmission thus offers fertile ground for both empirical inquiry and theoretical advancement.