Publications

This Country Dossier on Germany presents an overview of the assisted and forced return migration infrastructures (RMIs) in Germany, focusing on the most populous federal state of Germany, North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW), as a case study. It examines how return migration governance is put into practice through the concept of RMIs. Federalism in Germany grants autonomy to local governments, and federal law assigns responsibility for return policies to municipal authorities. This leads to complex coordination among institutions that decide independently on procedures and technologies. Consequently, the staff of the foreigners authorities (Ausländerbehörden, ABHs) are often isolated when implementing decisions they did not make and are faced with the conflicting demands of overseeing integration and return.

The extended case study on NRW highlights how the RMIs and forced returns in particular, are implemented by describing the actors involved, their practices (“doings”), the materials and technologies used, the relationships between them and several perceived tensions and ‘gaps’. A broad network of actors involved at different levels emerges, such as those who either facilitate or contest return, others who maintain a dual role, actors with an entrepreneurial approach to the operation of (forced) return, and individuals.

Assisted and forced return procedures are institutionally designed to follow a linear logic; however, non-linearity is very common depending, for example, on the dispositions of migrants, the attitudinal ‘cultures’ in foreigners offices and the strength of local civil society. Moreover, there is a considerable overlap between forced and assisted return in terms of actors/ institutions, activities and technologies, which suggests that the distinction between so-called voluntary assisted return and forced removals is not a strict one but rather a continuum connecting the two. Several practices emerge in grey areas. With the efforts to streamline service providers and the centralisation of institutional support through newly created institutions in NRW, overlaps, including in funding structures, are becoming more pronounced. In both RMIs there is an increasing reliance on Frontex for organisational and procedural tasks but also for funding. 

Read the full report here.