(Financial) support and assistance
Working out future prospects
After your return, you will focus on building a new life. You will need to find a place to live and a way to make a living. Maybe you are even planning to build your own business. If you have children who return with you, they will also need to adapt to new living conditions. Therefore, we do not only focus on your return itself during our counselling, but also try to work out a way with you to make your reintegration successful in the long run. That is why our counselling office is working closely with the European Union project Joint Reintegration Services (JRS), for example, which focuses on returnees’ reintegration. In cooperation with a variety of service providers in many different countries of origin, the organisations involved make it their goal to promote sustainable reintegration.
Applying for support programmes
Our counsellors are well versed regarding the different support programmes offering (financial) assistance to returnees.
Introduced in 1979, the so-called "REAG/GARP-Programme”, implemented by the UN organisation IOM, offers various kinds of assistance to those returning to their country of origin from Germany. We can, for example, apply for travel costs, medical expenses, and financial start-up assistance, depending on your individual case.
Moreover, the "Bavarian Return Programme”, implemented by the Bavarian State Office for Asylum and Return (LfAR), offers financial support for returnees, contributing to successful new beginnings.
Our role as counsellors is to explain and give an overview of the specific components available to you based on your individual situation and needs.
Participating in return preparation measures
Establishing a livelihood after their return is one of the most important issues for many returnees. Would you like to build your own business? Or maybe acquire some hands-on skills in a craft? Depending on your country of origin, we can connect you with organisations offering return preparation measures. We are working closely with Social Impact and the Training and Development Centers of the Bavarian Employers' Associations (bfz). These organisations aim to better qualify returnees for their countries’ labour markets and support them in establishing a source of income, offering one-on-one as well as group trainings. In addition to these measures, there is support offered by GIZ reintegration scouts who are in close contact with GIZ counselling centres in a number of countries and can work with returnees regarding their reintegration in their countries of origin while they are still in Germany.
Providing additional support for vulnerable returnees
Some returnees need a little extra support, for example single parents, the elderly, sick or disabled. For these vulnerable people, we need to check the requirements for their return and plan their journey even more carefully. Will they be able to receive adequate medical treatment in their country of origin? Depending on their health status, will the journey even be possible and how can we make sure they travel as safely as possible, for example by having medical personnel accompany them? Will their family be able to care for them after their return? These are just some of the questions we need to consider during counselling.