Researcher Dr. Veronika Bajt at the IMISCOE 2026 Conference

Between June 29 and July 2, 2026, the 23rd Annual Conference of the IMISCOE research network—the largest European network of migration scholars—took place in Girona and online. This year’s conference, titled “Strengthening Migration Studies through Community Engagement,” focused on socially engaged migration research, collaboration with local communities, and the pursuit of more equitable and inclusive social solutions. Dr. Veronika Bajt participated in the conference, contributing to two thematic sessions concerning European policies on the return and readmission of migrants.

On July 1, she co-chaired a panel with Prof. Sabine Hess from the University of Göttingen, titled “Beyond Regularisation: Mapping and Assessing Alternatives to Return-and-Readmission Policies in Europe and Beyond.” The panel was organized as part of the Horizon Europe project “MORE – Motivations, Experiences and Consequences of Returns and Readmissions Policy: Revealing and Developing Effective Alternatives.” It presented comparative research findings on alternatives to the prevailing return and readmission policies in Europe and beyond. The discussions highlighted existing—and thus functional—practices that grant migrants without a regulated status access to social rights, services, and various forms of support, without necessarily requiring the formal regularization of their status.

Dr. The following day, in a panel titled “Ethnographies of Enforcement, Suffering and Resistance: Returns and Readmission Policies on the Ground,” Bajt presented a paper entitled “Precarity and Deterrence: Migrant Returns and Everyday Life in Slovenia.” Drawing on interviews, focus groups, and consultations with migrants facing deportation, as well as with institutional representatives and civil society organizations, she analyzed the consequences of restrictive migration and return policies in Slovenia. The paper demonstrated how administrative uncertainty, limited access to rights, and the threat of deportation shape the daily lives of individuals undergoing return processes, and how the Slovenian case reflects broader European trends that prioritize control and deterrence over protection and inclusion.

Participation in the conference took place within the framework of the research project MORE, which examines the motives, experiences, and consequences of return policies, while developing evidence-based alternatives to existing approaches to migration management. The IMISCOE conference provided a significant forum for the international exchange of research findings and for discussions on more humane and sustainable migration policies.