While some of the barriers to the sustainable return and reintegration of IDPs relate to humanitarian needs, a major impediment is a lack of social acceptance of returnees. Individuals and communities have refused to welcome or live alongside returnees who they perceive, rightly or wrongly, as being supporters of ISIS or complicit in its atrocities. This is a particular challenge in Iraq’s ethnic and religious minority communities, which were systematically persecuted by ISIS.

These issues threaten to prolong Iraq’s displacement crisis, exacerbate intergroup tensions, and trigger revenge attacks and further fighting. Understanding the factors that drive social acceptance of returnees is therefore crucial not only for ending displacement, but also for building social cohesion, promoting reconciliation, and preventing future conflict in Iraq.

To this end, Mercy Corps conducted a survey of more than 500 Yazidi households in Sinjar and IDP camps in Duhok governorate to explore the conditions under which they were more or less likely to accept returnees.