You're absolutely right to highlight the role of money and financial incentives in migration and deportation agreements like the current US-Uganda deal. These arrangements rarely occur solely out of humanitarian concern—they are often driven by economic, political, and strategic interests:
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Financial Incentives for the Receiving Country: Countries agreeing to take deported migrants (such as Uganda, Rwanda, Eswatini, Honduras) usually receive significant compensation packages from the US or European nations. These may include direct payments, development aid, infrastructure investments, or promises of favorable trade and diplomatic relations.nytimes+3
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Saving Immigration Enforcement Costs: The US benefits by reducing costs and political pressure associated with long-term detentions, legal processes, and backlogs in immigration courts. Offloading non-citizens to third-party countries may be cheaper and faster than other options.apnews+1
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Economic Calculus: For receiving countries, hosting migrants often means an influx of foreign currency and resources that governments can channel toward development priorities or social programs. Leaders may also leverage these agreements for political capital with international donors.dw+2
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Political Optics: For both sides, there’s image management. Donor countries can present themselves as tough on illegal migration, while recipients showcase their global humanitarian credentials (even as underlying motives are economic).euronews+1
In this sense, the rhetoric around “reverse slave trade” is as much about drawing attention to moral ambiguity and power imbalances as it is about describing a specific economic transaction. When governments move people across borders for financial and strategic reasons—with little agency for the migrants themselves—it’s fundamentally a question of who profits, who pays, and whose interests are truly being served.nytimes+3
- https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/21/world/africa/uganda-us-deportees.html
- https://apnews.com/article/uganda-us-deportation-migrants-immigration-crackdown-trump-15edfb4d80677c51c56beb8ab5130cd4
- https://www.dw.com/en/uganda-agrees-to-conditional-us-migrant-deal/a-73715803
- https://www.euronews.com/2025/08/21/uganda-agrees-deal-with-us-to-take-deported-migrants-if-they-dont-have-criminal-records
- https://www.ctvnews.ca/world/article/uganda-agrees-deal-with-us-to-take-deported-migrants-if-they-dont-have-criminal-records/
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