National Consultant for Assessment of Reintegration Mechanisms for Returning Labour Migrants and Support to National Reintegration Policy Advocacy

Introduction

Established in 1951, IOM is a Related Organization of the United Nations and the leading UN agency in the field of migration. Working closely with governmental, intergovernmental and non-governmental partners, IOM promotes humane and orderly migration for the benefit of all. It saves lives and protects people on the move, drives solutions to displacement, and facilitates pathways for regular migration, while providing services and advice to governments and migrants. 

IOM is committed to fostering a respectful, inclusive and supportive workplace where all employees can thrive professionally and feel valued. By creating such an environment, IOM aims to better harness the full potential of migration and strengthen its support to people on the move.

IOM invites candidates from diverse backgrounds to apply and provides reasonable accommodation throughout the recruitment process when required. Learn more about IOM’s workplace culture at IOM workplace culture | International Organization for Migration
 

Project Context and Scope

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) is implementing the UK International Development-funded project, "Central Asia Safe Migration", which aims to promote safe, orderly, and regular labour migration from Central Asia, with a particular focus on Uzbekistan, under the UK Seasonal Worker Scheme (UK SWS). The project strengthens labour migrants' preparedness by improving access to accurate, timely, and practical information throughout the migration cycle, enabling prospective labour migrants to make informed decisions and supporting a safe, regular, and dignified migration experience.
As part of this project, IOM has provided reintegration grants to returning labour migrants and their family members over the past several years to support the establishment and development of businesses and livelihood activities, with the aim of facilitating their sustainable economic and social reintegration. While this support has generated valuable practical experience, sustainable reintegration cannot rely on individual assistance alone. It requires coordinated national mechanisms, including clear institutional roles and mandates, inter-agency coordination, referral pathways, access to employment, skills recognition and development, financial services, underpinned by sustained government ownership. At the same time, return does not in itself imply a need for reintegration support. Many returning labour migrants, including seasonal workers returning under the UK SWS after short-term employment abroad, may not face significant reintegration difficulties; for them, reintegration is primarily about making productive use of the earnings, skills and experience gained abroad, including through access to employment, skills recognition, entrepreneurship and financial services, and links to services at home.
IOM seeks to engage a qualified Expert to review and map existing reintegration mechanisms in Uzbekistan available to returning labour migrants, compare them with relevant international reintegration mechanisms and good practices, and draw on lessons learned from IOM’s reintegration grants, to inform evidence-based policy dialogue with national stakeholders. The assessment will be primarily desk-based, complemented by remote interviews with previous IOM grantees. The findings and recommendations of the assessment will be presented and discussed during a roundtable discussion with national government officials, tentatively scheduled for December 2026, with a view to supporting efforts to strengthen and institutionalize sustainable reintegration approaches in Uzbekistan.
The assessment will cover returning labour migrants, using returning UK SWS seasonal workers as a detailed example. It will apply IOM’s Integrated Approach to Reintegration, covering the economic, social and psychosocial dimensions of reintegration at the individual, community and structural levels.

Objectives
•    Review, map and analyse existing reintegration mechanisms and support measures in Uzbekistan, including relevant government programmes, institutional arrangements, legal and policy frameworks, coordination and referral arrangements, services and other available forms of assistance for returning labour migrants, with a particular focus on returning UK SWS seasonal workers, with a view to understanding the current national reintegration landscape, which programmes and services actually perform reintegration functions and which provide general social and economic support, and identifying key gaps.
•    Review relevant international reintegration mechanisms, approaches and best practices, including examples from other countries of origin with comparable labour migration profiles and from circular or seasonal labour migration schemes, and assess their relevance and applicability to the Uzbek context, taking into account the existing national mechanisms, institutional arrangements and identified gaps.
•    Draw lessons from IOM’s reintegration grants provided to returning labour migrants and their family members, based on qualitative interviews with previous grantees and available programme data, as a practical example of reintegration support, focusing on grantees’ experience of reintegration and access to services, what this experience shows about the services, partnerships and institutional linkages needed for sustainable reintegration, and how such support could be linked with, or integrated into, national reintegration mechanisms.
•    Generate evidence-based findings and practical recommendations to inform policy-level advocacy and support efforts to strengthen and institutionalize a coordinated and sustainable national reintegration mechanism in Uzbekistan, including options for institutional roles and mandates, inter-agency coordination, referral pathways and case management, financing, and monitoring of reintegration outcomes, consistent with applicable IOM guidance on reintegration.
•    Present the assessment findings and recommendations at the Roundtable discussion with national government officials and facilitate discussion on potential options for strengthening the national reintegration mechanism.

The Consultant will work under the direct supervision of the Head of Labour Mobility Division and in close coordination with the relevant IOM project staff.