Back to Pakistan: The political economy of emotions in remigration

每年都有超过90%的巴基斯坦避难申请者在德国被拒绝避难。许多被拒绝的人被要求离开这个国家。一些人被驱逐出境或“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。他们随后被驱逐被视为解决他们在德国非法存在的解决方案，同时也是阻止其他有抱负的难民进入德国的手段。在这方面，我们研究了从德国驱逐出境和“自愿”返回巴基斯坦的问题，并补充了迄今为止主要侧重于非洲和拉丁美洲的越来越多的关于驱逐的人类学研究。通过关注回返移民的“情感经济”，该项目首先驳斥了移民是建立在理性经济利益基础上的假设。因此，我们认为，像所有社会活动一样，移民与多样、复杂、往往是相互矛盾的情感有着内在联系。这一点尤其适用于返回移民。我们首先调查了巴基斯坦庇护申请者被拒绝留在德国的复杂且经常令人困惑的情况。在这里，我们主要关注驱逐出境的政治和官僚机构对“自愿”遣返计划的管理，这些计划被用来鼓励和促进巴基斯坦人离开德国。随后，我们将重点放在与返回的动机、期望和经历有关的情感上。换句话说，通过与在德国面临驱逐/返回的巴基斯坦移民和返回巴基斯坦的回返者合作，我们研究了驱逐的影响和影响。通过这样做，我们使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岌岌可危的移民生活中扮演的关键角色。通过我们的研究和其他不同寻常的知识，我们将希望和绝望在对话者岌岌可危的迁徙生活中表现出来的对命运的情感观念带到了话语的表面。由于旅行限制，Covid19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.