Legal status in Europe and economic reintegration in Senegal: is there a long-term impact?

This paper argues that the experience of irregularity during migration has not only an impact on migrants’ lives while they are in their destination countries, but also long-lasting effects that are visible even after they return to their home country. In line with previous research, we confirm that the status at exit, measured through deportation, penalizes returnees because of the disruption it creates in their socio-economic life. We further test the hypothesis that irregular entry in destination countries also hampers reintegration back in the origin country because it tends to generate a loss of revenues, qualification and contacts with people at home that are detrimental for migrants’ reintegration in their home country. Our analyses are based on the Senegalese sample of the 2017-18 TEMPER Origin Surveys. Our dependent variable is the occupational choice at the time of the survey. We find that migrants who entered Europe as undocumented immigrants are significantly less likely to become employers after return than those who entered regularly. And we show that part of this disadvantage is explained by the loss of economic, social and human capitals while being abroad. These results largely hold when testing an alternative definition of entrepreneurship and restricting the sample to those who had returned from Europe at least one year before being surveyed