Income prospect trajectories after state-induced return from Germany to the Gambia: Assisted Voluntary Return and Reintegration as ‘slow deportation’

Considering the harsh humanitarian and financial costs of deportation, Assisted Voluntary Return and Reintegration (AVRR) is regarded as a better alternative to return migrants to their countries of origin. This analysis assesses the differences in income prospect development after deportation and AVRR and the reintegration assistance they encompass. In a longitudinal comparative design, it follows the experiences of 20 migrants who (were) returned to the Gambia between 2018 and 2020. It finds that both return types generate overly challenging economic trajectories that become difficult to distinguish over time. However, AVRR and deportation create different temporal tendencies. While AVRR often entails a realization process about the inadequacy of post-return hopes, deportees partly start to reorient themselves economically and socially against the backdrop of inhumane deportation practice and following despair. Considering the overall low chances of establishing positive income prospects after any state-induced return, AVRR resembles a ‘slow deportation’