Not a Semester Hero

Abstract Deportation and “voluntary return” are controversial issues in the European Union (EU) and The Gambia. Based on ethnographic analysis of the social realities of Gambians “voluntarily” returned from EU member states, this article emphasizes returnees’ emic understanding of return as the production of “human trash.” Following their administrative sorting and their subsequent return, Gambian migrants experience stigmatization and exclusion in The Gambia while also trying to hide their “failure” as irregular migrants. The claim of “reintegration,” according to the EU's perspective, presumes that Gambians are “economic migrants” (i.e., non-refugees). Nevertheless, they are “cared for” through “humanitarian assistance.” Through these mechanisms, the Anti-Refugee Machine makes productive use of those it spat out.