I left to get medical treatment in Spain. Once healed, I first thought I could stay and try my luck.

I started working with my uncle, but as months went by, I considered returning home. Many people from my community in Spain told me: ‘Think twice, it is hard to make it here, you may miss the opportunity to build something there.’

I was torn: I felt the urge to go back but did not know how. I found a solution after discussing with return and reintegration counsellors, who helped me think through my future in Senegal.

Upon return, my family saw that I was determined. They supported me emotionally and did their best to help me financially.

It was heartening to receive such an encouragement. However, it was also a huge responsibility. I felt I could not fail them: I had to succeed.

I now have a job at the port working for a custom clearance company. It is good start, but I don’t intend to stop here. My ambition is to create my own business. It is not easy: there is competition, and a lot of money is needed to obtain a commercial license. For now, I am focusing on improving my skills and gaining trust from clients.

I think that wherever you are, be it in Europe or in Africa, you can succeed. Here in Senegal, if you are motivated to work hard and have ideas, you can make it.

I spent eight years in Switzerland. One day, my mother called me: my father was very ill and she wanted me to come back in Mongolia to help her take care of him and provide for the family.

I took my kids with me and we left. It was a long time since I had not set foot here. Everything had changed. My kids adapted quite well and after a few months they could speak Mongolian. But I must say, for me, starting a new life was hard.

My mother already had experience working in the watch industry. With the family’s own resources and the additional support I received, we decided to open a watch retail shop. It is going well. We are now in the process of opening a second one. We are also planning to expand our activities and propose watchmaking lessons.

I am happy to be back: I can see a future here.

I used to work in Nigeria as a journalist and a media consultant. However, due to the economic crisis, I lost my job. Like many other Nigerians, I left the country, hoping to find better conditions abroad.

I decided to go to Algeria. For the three months I was there, I was teaching English and doing some other small temporary jobs. But life was tough, and opportunities were scarce: I decided to return home.

On the way back, our smugglers dropped me and a group of other people off in the desert. They took my bags, my money and my camera. I was left destitute. There was no one to help, no phone to call my family. It was a painful experience.

I finally arrived in Niger, where a couple of Gambians told me about several places where I could receive the assistance I needed. So, I ended up going to the Agadez transit centre. During the month I spent there, I learned French and took free entrepreneurship classes. I did not want to come back empty handed. Thanks to the training I took in Agadez and the support I received, I founded an online radio channel in Abuja with other returnees and fellow classmates. I now feel like everything I have ever dreamt of is coming to fruition.

Amebo FM, “Nigeria first online radio station” aims to bring to light a diversity of issues relating to migration. We need to sensitize individuals and communities, both at home and overseas, about irregular migration and its alternatives.

I believe that education is a powerful tool. It helps people make the right choices. In Africa, people often don’t have access to education so they can only do manual jobs. If you don’t educate your people, you can never grow as a country. This is why people leave.

Africa is a place of hope, of hard working people, one does not need to leave.

When we moved to Sudan ten years ago, things were going well for us. However, with the family growing, caring for the kids became an issue. My daughter was reaching school age and we could not pay for her tuition anymore. That is why we decided to begin a new life in our home country.

My relatives were very enthusiastic about our plans. At the same time, they felt sorry because they had no means to help us in our journey.

We heard about assisted voluntary return and reintegration programmes by word of mouth. In Sudan, we considered different options to make a living in Ethiopia.

Once back, we opened a juice shop, but the economic situation worsened and we went bankrupt. It was a tough start, yet we did not give up.

We had to sell all the shop equipment so that my husband could renew his driving license. Soon after, he found work, and our daughter could go back to school.

For now, I am taking care of my kids. I want them to get a good education. Once they are grown up, my dream is to open a hair salon.

My family and I left to Greece in search of better opportunities.

When my parents decided to return to Iraq, I realized that it would be challenging to find my way in Europe, and I decided to go back shortly after them. Since I had no means to do so, I sought help in organizing and planning for my future.

It was difficult to start from scratch once back in Iraq. At first, I was worried that I would not find a job.

But my family and close friends helped me get back on my feet: they lent me electrical appliances and tools to open a small shop. With this, and with the reintegration grant I received, I was able to start my own business.

My community was of great support. I now see me building my future instead of looking back in regret.

I decided to return to Senegal after realizing my dream for a better future would not be achieved in Europe.

With the training I took in Italy, I was able to re-establish the retail and repair business I had started before leaving Senegal. Once back home, I was mentored by very active and experienced people. I am not alone: four of my staff are here in apprenticeship, while others work as repairers. They fix the material that I, as the business owner, buy for this purpose.

One should not say that in Senegal, there is no job, it’s because they follow the easy way. Since I came back, I did not stop one second. I’m busy 24/7. This journey provided me with experience and courage. It taught me that determination and hard work always end up being beneficial.

I also have a family now: a wife and a daughter. I don’t regret my decision to come back.

The study explores the links between health needs, access to care and sustainable reintegration of returnees. It took a life-course approach to returnees’ health needs and reintegration outcomes, and followed a mixed methods approach with fieldwork in Brazil, Ethiopia, the Gambia, Georgia, Pakistan, and Senegal.

Learn more.

When the Sierra Leonean community in Mauritania first contacted IOM, it was to seek help to find a young boy who had escaped from the Mahadra (Koranic school) and had gone missing for days. The boy was Ismail, a nine-year-old from a poor neighborhood near Freetown, Sierra Leone. He had arrived in Mauritania in 2016, sent by his family to study the Koran.

A very active, euphoric and smart boy, Ismail had decided to escape because he was unhappy in Mauritania. He was also not happy with his studies. He just wanted to go back to Sierra Leone to be with his family. When IOM staff first met him, he was always staring at the ground, scowling. Although only 140 cm tall, Ismail’s gaze seemed that of a world weary grown man.

It was clear to the IOM team that he knew exactly what he wanted and that he would not give up until he got it. As he did not want to go back to the Mahadra, IOM placed him with a host family where he could spend some time with the family’s children and play around in Nouakchott, the capital city of Mauritania.

Ismail is now attending an English school in the morning and a Koranic school in the afternoon.

Unaccompanied migrant children are children who have been separated from both parents or other relatives or guardians and are not being cared for by an adult who, by law or custom, is responsible for doing so. Those children often undergo long journeys and face challenging life experiences not commonly appropriate for a child. They are therefore, forced to mature much earlier than normal and end up developing strong decision-making capacities.

For this reason, in the process of assisting them, IOM ensures that children are actively involved in decisions regarding their future, including the decision to continue their education, to work or to combine both. The Organization is committed to promoting and protecting the rights of unaccompanied migrant children, having their best interests as the top priority in all its activities.

The study was undertaken in 2022 by the KMH in collaboration with Samuel Hall and the University of Sussex. It builds on previous research on debt and reintegration by analyzing returnees’ and their households’ experiences with debt in five countries.

Learn more.