Coming home is harder than leaving. Migrants who return often start over with nothing: no work, sometimes no family, no one to turn to.

UN Migration (IOM) helps people rebuild after they return. With Jerry de Mars I shot and edited four of these stories, in Ethiopia and Malawi, part of a 22-film reintegration series across 11 countries. IOM uses the films to train its staff and partners and to give the public a fairer picture of what return really involves. The films were delivered with subtitles in English, French, Spanish, Arabic and local languages.

Ifrah spent years cleaning houses abroad and sent every cent home, coming back to Ethiopia with nothing saved and too anxious to leave the house. IOM’s counselling helped her recover, and she found work at a plastic-recycling project that turns waste into jobs for 120 returnees and unemployed locals.

Kateness left for South Africa hoping for a better life but ended up undocumented, and came back with nothing. An IOM business course and startup capital helped her begin again. She noticed Malawi imports its castor oil from India, even though the beans grow locally, so she started producing it herself. Now she’s aiming for 15,000 customers.

Happy went to South Africa to earn for his family and built a few good years in construction, until the work dried up and he ended up on the street. Back in Malawi, IOM’s training helped him reintegrate and start again, now in an agricultural cooperative. “Now I know why God gave me this name,” he says. “He had plans for me.”

Fuad left Dire Dawa in Ethiopia for Djibouti at 16 to send money to his sick mother, sleeping on the street, going hungry, crossing paths with wild animals. IOM brought him home and set his mother up with the machines and grain to bake injera. He’s 18 now, and he’s staying.

Produced by Beyond Borders Media for the EU-IOM Knowledge Management Hub, funded by the European Union.