CMIR Seminar Series | Economic incentives and the return of the rejected asylum seekers

The return and reintegration of rejected asylum seekers is a growing concern. In general, only a third of individuals with negative asylum decisions are estimated to have returned to their origin countries in recent years. 

We provide the first causal evaluation of a specific policy aimed at incentivizing the return of rejected asylum seekers, namely a cash grant given to those who return to their home countries on their own. We use individual level administrative data from Sweden and leverage that the eligible nationalities have changed over time.