Return at the margins of Europe: Securitized migration governance in Slovenia

The paper examines the Return and Readmission Policy in Slovenia within the European Union (EU) migration governance regime, addressing how migration control is shaped by policy intentions, institutional practices, and political interests. Although officially presented as balancing enforcement and human rights protection, Slovenia’s migration policy is shown to be strongly oriented toward control, deterrence, and the removal of “irregular” migrants. Through a critical analysis of policy documents, legal frameworks, political discourse, and interviews with key stakeholders, the findings reveal a country that formally prefers “voluntary” return but faces logistical and diplomatic challenges in returning third-country nationals. The analysis exposes a disconnect between the EU Return Directive, national law, and actual practices, where involuntary return dominates despite limited effectiveness and assisted voluntary return remains underdeveloped. Using Slovenia as a case study, the paper contributes to critical debates on migration governance by showing how smaller EU states navigate migration management amid political pressures and structural constraints. The central thesis is that Slovenia’s return policy, despite its formal commitments to human rights and voluntariness, is primarily shaped by securitized logics, bureaucratic inertia, geopolitical positioning, and nationalist anti‑immigrant pressures, resulting in persistent tensions between enforcement priorities and rights-based commitments.