The state of voluntariness? (Re)migration policy in Post-Fascist Germany between denazification, decolonization and development

Abstract

ABSTRACT Between 1949 and 1980, voluntariness became a key element in West Germany’s post-fascist migration regime, intended to ethically frame the forced deportations of migrants. Voluntariness appeared in German migration legislation as a euphemistic term for forced removals. Politicians and lawyers emphasized the need to offer voluntary repatriation to those facing inevitable deportation. To avoid any association with Nazi deportations, both liberals and ‘former’ Nazis involved in Germany’s migration policy underscored the notion of voluntariness in what were essentially forced deportations. The paradigm of voluntariness in repatriation management was influenced by a specific German need to denazify deportations and migration practices, as well as by a global shift towards voluntariness associated with liberalization, decolonization, development, Cold War rivalries and the rise of liberal internationalism. Global practices and discourses of return migration both emerged from and helped shape this paradigm of voluntariness, as the liberalizing world sought to distance itself from its fascist legacy and align with emancipatory and progressive ideals, despite the ongoing deportation of migrants from the Global South. I argue that West Germany played a significant role in shaping and globalizing the concept of voluntary repatriation within this historical context, transforming it from a paradigm into a dispositive.