Abstract
This article focuses on people’s perceptions and experiences of deportation policies in an emigration context, such as Anglophone Cameroon. In view of the dominant view in the policy domain that high deportation rates are likely to discourage people from wanting to migrate, the article asks how the direct or indirect experience of a forced return influences people’s migration aspirations and expectations. Based on ethnographic material and life stories of deported migrants gathered over the span of 17 months between 2007 and 2016 in Anglophone Cameroon, the article relates understandings of deportation in Anglophone Cameroon to normative assumptions within migration policy in Western Europe. Deportations do not lower people’s migration aspiration because they are not understood as being caused in a linear fashion through illegality. Instead, causes of deportation are experienced and interpreted as contingent and rooted in individual circumstances.
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.