An unnecessary typology for return migration. Socio-legal analysis of the Law for the return of Colombians abroad

Abstract

This article analyzes a fundamental area of the public policy of migration and return in Colombia: Law 1565 (2012). It focuses on two important elements: the typologization of return, and the incentives and deadlines to implement the law. The critical analysis of the legal text is combined with stories extracted from interviews and focus groups carried out in Colombia and Ecuador. It is concluded that legal discourse operates in two ways: on the one hand, it makes invisible the most fragile and vulnerable returnees, classifying them into categories that lack an empirical foundation; and, on the other hand, there is an invention of the remigrated as a subject with developed abilities, ready to be applied to the economic incentives offered. In this way, it is argued that these policies conceive the migratory process as a simple geographic displacement, and not as a human right, which becomes particularly important in the current context of the country.