‘Integration’ and ‘deportation’ seem to be two opposed ways of talking about and responding to immigration. Indeed, in many countries 'successful integration’ can be a ground for suspending a deportation or even awarding (exceptional) residence rights. However, as we will argue in this paper, the integration paradigm is also mobilised to justify deportations and effectively increase unwanted migrants’ deportability. Based on original research mainly in Germany and Austria, we will explore two kinds of connections between deportation and integration: On the one hand, we focus on cases in which the deportation of undeserving foreigners is presented as necessary to ensure the successful integration of those who are (more) deserving and of the (host) society as a whole. On the other hand, we will refer to cases in which the ‘reintegration’ of deportees in their countries of origin is used to legitimise and ‘facilitate’ their more or less forced return. In seeking to contribute to a critical understanding of the (mis)uses of the concept of integration, our analysis ties in with studies highlighting the various ways in which integration and disintegration or inclusion and exclusion discourses and measures are intertwined.

Speakers:

Sophie Hinger, University of Osnabruck, is a Research Associate and PhD candidate at the Institute for International Migration and Intercultural Relations (IMIS) and the Geography Department of the University of Osnabrück, Germany. From 2019 to 2021 she coordinated the European network "European Master in Migration Studies". In 2015/16 she worked as a doctoral Marie Curie fellow at the University of Sussex. Her research and teaching focuses on migration- and border regimes, geographies of asylum, cities and citizenship.

Reinhard Schweiter, University of Sussex, is a migration researcher associated with the Sussex Centre for Migration Research (SCMR) at the University of Sussex, UK. From 2018 to 2020 he was a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellow at the Department of Political Science of the University of Vienna, where he led the project REvolTURN - Managing migrant return through 'voluntariness'. His PhD in Migration Studies was awarded in 2018 by the University of Sussex, where he also completed an M.A. in Migration Studies. He also holds degrees in Political Science (Mag. phil.) and Sociology (B.A.) from the University of Innsbruck, and has extensive research experience in the UK, Spain, and Austria.

Discussant:

Jean-Michel Lafleur, University of Liege, is Research Professor at the University of Liège, Associate Director of CEDEM and a Senior Research Associate at the Belgian Fund for Scientific Research (FRS-FNRS). He also teaches different courses on migration at the Faculty of Social Sciences of the University of Liège. Jean-Michel’s areas of expertise are the transnational dimension of contemporary migration, EU mobility, social protection and the political participation of immigrants. He is the P.I. of the European Research Council (ERC) project entitled “Migration and Transnational Social Protection in Post-crisis Europe” in the framework of which he recently published three volumes comparing welfare policies for immigrants and emigrants in 40 countries: www.cedem.uliege.be/en/migrantwelfare

Sophie Hinger and Reinhard Schweiter co-edited a book Politics of (Dis)Integration (2019) - part of the IMISCOE Research Series - an open access book series: https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-25089-8

This Sheffield MRG seminar is co-sponsored by IMISCOE Editorial Committee: https://www.imiscoe.org/about-imiscoe/organisation/committees/editorial-committee