MIREM stands for MIgration de REtour au Maghreb. This collective research programme was launched in December 2005 and ended in December 2008. Today; MIREM and its deliverables (publications; statistics and field surveys on return migrants; conferences and seminars) are part of the RDP. Focusing on returnees’ aspirations; the core deliverable of the MIREM project is a comprehensive comparative database based on 992 interviews made with return migrants to Algeria; Morocco and Tunisia.

As the collected data were gradually processed and analysed; it became clear that the distinction between migrants who decided on their own initiative to return to their country of origin and those who were compelled to do so constituted one key variable explaining returnees’ prospects of socio-professional reintegration back home.

The main objective of the MIREM project lies in taking into better consideration the challenges linked to return migration as well as its impact on development. A whole set of analytical tools have been produced to shed light on the sociodemographic characteristics; conditions and patterns of reintegration of return migrants to the Maghreb countries (Algeria; Morocco; and Tunisia). The project collected both quantitative and qualitative data in selected countries or regions.