ABSTRACT
Deportation involves elements of force and coercion. Deportees have no control over their mobility, where they are taken, when their removal takes place, or how they are deported. Deportees' narratives disclose the multilayered relationship between space and identity, and between territory and belonging. A reverse reference point of belonging would lead to the formation of what C. Hess has termed a 'reverse diaspora'. In a reverse diaspora, the deporting country becomes a stable frame of reference and meaning for their identity and memory, and thereby the notions of home and belonging have indeed become more fluid. Deportation has a deep impact on the relations between deportees and their country of origin. Mass deportation has increasingly become part of neoliberal economic restructuring and global capitalism. Deportation turns individuals into quasi-citizens, or denizens whose rights can be suspended, rejected, delayed and denied.
