After four women and nine children associated with Islamic State returned to Australia from Syria last week, the Australian Federal Police indicated some would be referred to community reintegration and countering violent extremism programs.
Australia is not starting from scratch. Thirty-one Australian women and children have previously returned from Syria, all but six of them with government assistance. None has been linked to criminal acts since coming home.
The pressing question, then, is not whether Australia has the institutional capacity to support these returns, but what makes reintegration succeed or fail.
