Abstract:
The reintegration of women returnees into their communities and reunification with their
families has become a major challenge especially in a society where the rate of women
migration and returnees is high. The objective of this study is to assess the practices and
challenges of reintegration of women migrant returnees in Mana District, Jimma. The study
brings a discussion on how these experiences have affected the lives of women returnees in
socio-economic, cultural and physical reintegration. Descriptive research design was
employed with the objective of revealing the status of reintegration of women returnees. The
study participants of this research are 114 women migrant returnees from the Kingdom of
Saudi Arabia. Data were collected through snowball sampling techniques. The data
collection techniques used included questionnaires, focus group discussion and key
informant interviews. Descriptive statistics, such as frequency, and percentages were used
for analysis and presentation. The qualitative data was analyzed through detailed
description, narration and discussion to get in depth insight into the subject matter. The
finding reveals that among the reintegration challenges of women returnee, the variables of
socio-economic are dominant challenges of reintegration. The result from respondents
demonstrates that women returnees lack the job opportunity, conducive working place, and
financial support are found to be the major factors hindering reintegration. The result
showed that there is a gap in providing comprehensive reintegration programs in an effective
and coordinated manner, which prompted the desire for remigration amongst the women
returnees. The study revealed that there is a need for rehabilitation and reintegration of
women returnees by involving key actors of government offices, NGOs, private stakeholders
and other concerned bodies.
