“I was crying, I did not come back with anything”: Women’s Experiences of Deportation from Europe to Nigeria

Abstract

The aim of this article is to study the impact of deportation on women’s lives, via the narrated experiences of Nigerian women deported from the European Union. It focuses on women’s stories about the period prior to their travel to Europe and their motivations for doing so; on stories about the journey and their experiences as migrants; and finally on stories about their deportation and their life after returning home to Nigeria. By taking this three-step approach and by focusing on deportees’ experiences, the authors want to contribute to an emic understanding of deportation in which gender and kinship play a crucial part. The obligation to migrate is a social as well as an economic duty for women in the Nigerian context. Whereas anthropological studies have so far focused on deportees’ feelings of non-belonging, this article shows that women’s experiences of deportation are highly connected to family belonging.

Voices of Nigerian Women Survivors of Trafficking Held in Italian Centres for Identification and Expulsion

“…On the contrary, they are usually detained in CIE, and often deported to Nigeria, where they risk stigmatization and ostracization by their communities, or being forced to undergo purification rites. Once repatriated to Nigeria, these women can easily fall into the racket of exploitation again, and be re‐trafficked to Italy or to other European countries (Ratia and Notermans, ). They may even be killed by their traffickers because they have denounced them, or just because they failed to pay back their travel debt.…”

The Reversal of Migratory Family Lives: A Cape Verdean Perspective on Gender and Sociality pre- and post-deportation

“…Migrants are frequently caught unawares in the course of their everyday activities, for instance, when their papers are checked during police raids at their workplace or in a street control action (Ratia and Notermans 2012;Kanstroom 2012). Thronson (2008, 392) sees in this a conscious strategy on the part of state authorities:…”

‘We Deport Them but They Keep Coming Back’: The Normalcy of Deportation in the Daily Life of ‘Undocumented’ Zimbabwean Migrant Workers in Botswana

“…In this context, their coping strategies are designed to avoid deportation and mitigate its impact. Drotbohm (2014) draws our attention to the works of authors such as Willen (2007) and Ratia and Notermans (2012) who highlight a range of strategies 'undocumented' migrants employ to limit their contact with state officials and to remain unseen. For participants, forms of 'illegal' migration control, such as random police raids in residence, workplace areas and roadblocks, are not viewed as equally disruptive or stressful but each requires its own response and some are more easily dealt with than others.…”