Practices and Challenges of Reintegration of Women Migrant Returnees from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia: The Case of Mana District in Jimma, Oromia

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.