Back to Pakistan: The political economy of emotions in remigration

绝大多数巴基斯坦庇护申请人--超过90% --每年在德国都被拒绝庇护。许多被拒绝的人被要求离开该国。有些人被驱逐出境或“自愿”返回巴基斯坦，而另一些人则移民到其他欧洲国家以避免被驱逐出境。他们随后被驱逐出境被视为处理他们在德国“非法”存在的一种解决办法，同时也是阻止其他有抱负的难民来到德国的一种手段。在这种情况下，我们研究驱逐出境和“自愿”返回从德国到巴基斯坦和补充越来越多的人类学研究驱逐出境，迄今主要集中在非洲和拉丁美洲。该项目通过关注回流移民的“情感经济”，首先对移民基于理性经济利益的假设提出了质疑。因此，我们认为移徙与所有社会活动一样，与各种各样、复杂和往往相互矛盾的情感有着内在的联系。这尤其适用于返回移徙。我们首先调查了巴基斯坦庇护申请者被剥夺在德国居留权的复杂且往往令人困惑的情况。在这里，我们集中在驱逐出境的政治和官僚管理的“自愿”返回计划，以鼓励和加快巴基斯坦人离开德国。随后，我们关注与回归的动机、期望和经历相关的情绪。换句话说，通过与在德国面临驱逐出境/返回的巴基斯坦移民和返回巴基斯坦的人合作，我们研究了驱逐出境的影响和效果。在这样做时，我们使我们的移民对话者的微观政治、社会文化和宗教生活世界成为我们关注的焦点。与此同时，我们揭示了伊斯兰教和命运在我们对话者不稳定的移徙生活中的关键作用。通过我们的研究以及其他不寻常的知识，我们把命运的情感观念带到了话语的表面，希望和绝望在我们的对话者不稳定的移民生活中发挥作用。由于旅行限制，Covid 19严重阻碍和减少了在巴基斯坦的实地工作。我们寻求延长该项目，以便继续并完成在巴基斯坦的研究。

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.