Making new citizens out of deportees

Deportation of migrants is increasingly debated as one of the solutions to the EU migration crisis. In this new article in Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies Sine Plambech writes about deportation as seen from the perspective of Nigerian deportees and the very active Nigerian institutions that seek to intervene in their migration.

Deportation is often analysed from a Global North perspective - as simply a technology of migration control imposed upon migrants and their passive nation states in the Global South. Yet, this article argues that deportation is more than simply migration control. Rather it serves the dual function as a tool for migration governance as well as a tool for moral governance.

In Nigeria, deportations increasingly emerge as a site for reconfiguring, circumscribing and actively practicing what it means to be a legitimate Nigerian citizen, and who should be allowed to participate in the building of a modern Nigerian nation.