Back to Pakistan: The political economy of emotions in remigration

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An overwhelming majority of Pakistani asylum applicants – more than 90% – are denied asylum in Germany every year. Many of those rejected are required to leave the country. Some are deported or “voluntarily” returned to Pakistan, while others migrate to other European states to avoid deportation. Their subsequent removal is seen as a solution to deal with their “illegal” presence in Germany whilst simultaneously serving as means to deter other aspiring refugees from coming to the country. In this context, we study deportation and “voluntary” return from Germany to Pakistan and complement a growing body of anthropological research on deportation that hitherto focuses mainly on Africa and Latin America. By focusing on the “emotional economy” of return migration, the project problematises the assumption that migration is based on rational economic interests, in the first place. As such, we frame migration, like all social activities, as intrinsically linked to diverse, complex and often contradictory emotions. This applies especially to return migration. We started by investigating the complex and often confusing situation of Pakistani asylum applicants denied the right to stay in Germany. Here we focus on the politics of deportation and the bureaucratic administration of “voluntary” return programs employed to encourage and expedite Pakistanis to leave Germany. Subsequently, we focus on emotions linked with the motivations, expectations, and experiences of return. In other words, by working with Pakistani migrants facing deportation/return in Germany and returnees back in Pakistan, we study the affects and effects of removal. In doing so, we make the micro-political, socio-cultural and religious lifeworlds of our migrant interlocutors the locus of our attention. Simultaneously, we unpack the critical role of Islam and destiny in the precarious migratory lives of our interlocutors. We bring affective ideas of destiny upon which hope and despair play out in our interlocutors’ precarious migratory lives to the discursive surface through our research, among other uncommon knowledge. Covid19 has seriously hampered and curtailed fieldwork in Pakistan because of travel restrictions. We seek a extension of the project in order to continue and conclude research in Pakistan.