Product Code Database
Remigration is a far-right concept referring to the ethnic cleansing via mass deportation of non-white minority populations, especially immigrants and sometimes including native-born citizens, to their place of racial ancestry. Originating in Europe, the concept has since spread to the United States and Canada, where it has gained increasing prominence, and is especially popular within the Identitarian movement. Some proponents of remigration suggest excluding some persons with non-European background from such a mass deportation, based on a varyingly defined degree of assimilation into European culture.
Advocates of remigration promote the concept in pursuit of ethno-cultural homogeneity. According to Deutsche Welle, ethnopluralism, the Nouvelle Droite concept that different ethnicities require their own segregated living spaces, creates a need for remigration of people with "foreign roots". The Mexican scholar José Ángel Maldonado has described the idea as a "soft type of ethnic cleansing under the guise of deportation and segregation".
Presented by its proponents as a remedy to mass immigration and the Eurabia, remigration has increasingly become an integral policy position of the Identitarian movement and other far-right political movements and parties. Research from the British Institute for Strategic Dialogue, conducted in April 2019, showed a distinct rise in conversations about remigration on the social media website Twitter between 2012 and 2019. Twitter, now owned by Elon Musk, and Telegram have been at the forefront of spreading the term into the mainstream.
Examples of the historic usage of the term remigration include the return of after the Second World War, as well as human migration of people who had fled socialism and then returned postsocialism. According to journalist Ana P. Santos, "Ana P. Santos Grantee", Pulitzer Center (accessed 29 Nov 2025). up until the 2020s, "The term 'remigration' was primarily used in migration studies to describe the voluntary return of migrants and foreigners to their home countries."Santos, Ana P. " 'Remigration': How a word threatens to change migration views in Germany", InfoMigrants (26 Feb 2025). But during those years, there was also some discussion of involuntary migration, for example the economist Wolfgang Franz used the term remigration in 1987 for the involuntary return of foreign workers to their home countries.Franz, Wolfgang. "The End of Expansion in Unemployment in Germany: Beginnings of an Attempt at an Evaluation of Structural Unemployment as a Partial Component of Joblessness" in Unemployment: Theory, Policy and Structure 83 (Walter de Gruyter 1987, Peder Pedersen and Reinhard Lund, eds.).
Early evocations of the modern far-right concept of remigration can be found in French 1960s movements such as Europe-Action, considered the "embryonic form" of the Nouvelle Droite. Jean-Pierre Stirbois, then General Secretary of the National Front (FN), coined the expression "we will send them back" ('on les renverra') in an interview. He was the architect of the first electoral breakthrough of the FN in 1983, earning nearly 17% of the vote in the city of Dreux with the promise of "inverting the migratory flows". The idea is also expressed in the German slogan "Deutschland den Deutschen, Ausländer raus" ('Germany to Germans, foreigners out'),Aftenberger, I. (2017). Die ‘Identitäre’ Beseitigung der andere. In J. Goetz, J. M. Sedlacek, & A. Winkler (Eds.), Untergangster des Abendlandes (pp. 203–227). Hamburg: Marta Press. and in the motto of L'Œuvre Française "La France aux Français" ('France to the French').
In the 2010s the Identitarian movements were trying to avoid the use of historically tainted vocabulary while expressing their ideas, trying to create a "new language", for example, by replacing "race" with "culture". In the process, a successful strategy of reusing old terms with a new meaning had been discovered. In particular, while their meaning of "remigration" was a neologism intended to replace the tainted "deportation", the word itself had a reputable history. This was especially in the German-speaking countries, where remigration denoted the post-Second World war return of German refugees who fled from Nazism, thus creating positive associations. Similarly, the "infiltration" got a new name, Great Replacement, a myth which states that the white Christian European population is being progressively replaced with non-European populations, specifically from North Africa and the Middle East, through mass migration, demographic growth, and a European drop in the birth rate.
The French movement Generation Identity adopted remigration as part of its platform in 2015, but the new term remained obscure until January 2024, with mass interest generated by widely publicised 2023 Potsdam far-right meeting. The situation in Germany was similar; between 2018 and 2023, Identitäre Bewegung Deutschland and Alternative for Germany ( Alternative für Deutschland, or AfD) occasionally used the term, and the AfD adopted it as part of its platform in 2021, but widespread use only began in 2023.
As of 2024, the discourse on remigration remained on the back burner within the AfD, with no radical proposals, allowing the party to appeal to a broad electorate. At the same time, the concept was becoming increasingly normalised, with a wider audience now familiar with what was once an obscure Identitarian term.
Proponents of remigration often use the historical example of the expulsion of Pieds-Noirs from Algeria in 1962 as a successful past instance of organised forced remigration, even though the exodus is described by some historians as an ethnic cleansing stimulated by violence and threats from the National Liberation Front (FLN) and part of the native Muslim population, as evidenced by the slogan "the suitcase or the coffin" promoted by the FLN, the kidnappings of Pieds-Noirs, or the Oran massacre of 1962.
The FPÖ heavily emphasised remigration, particularly to Islamic countries, during its 2024 Austrian legislative election campaign. Party leader Herbert Kickl has called for the "remigration of uninvited strangers" from Austria with a focus on those who break the law.
In March 2025 Vlaams Belang leader Tom Van Grieken suggested the implementation of a "remigration policy" that would include illegal immigrants, asylum seekers and foreign national criminals. In April 2025 Mercina Claesen, a Vlaams Belang MP and leader of the party's youth wing, Vlaams Belang Jongeren, has called for the remigration not only of illegal immigrants, but also legal immigrants who have committed crimes.
In March 2018 an Al Jazeera investigative team released footage and audio revealing Marine Le Pen's close confidant and former accountant, Nicolas Crochet, saying that the National Rally party would introduce a remigration programme to force immigrants back to their country of origin, in the event that they came to power in France.
In February 2019, speaking with L'Opinion, Debout la France candidate Emmanuelle Gave (daughter of French entrepreneur ), advocated for remigration as a policy for voters in the European Parliament elections in May. In what Libération described as a "dangerous penetration of the ideas of the ultra-radical extreme right in the French political space", Gave announced that she was in favor of the party putting remigration "on the table".
According to an IFOP poll conducted in March 2022 prior to the French presidential elections, 63% of French people claim "not to be shocked" by the use of the word "remigration" and 66% support the idea of remigrating illegal immigrants, foreign criminals and "Fiche S" foreigners. Les Français et le concept de «remigration» Ifop-Fiducial pour Sud Radio March 2022 (in French) Retrieved 29 March 2023
According to an OpinionWay poll from March 2022, 55% of French people also support the establishment of a Ministry of Remigration, an idea proposed by Eric Zemmour during the French presidential elections campaign.
As of 2024, Marine Le Pen's party, National Rally, is opposed to remigration and cited Alternative for Germany's support for it as a reason to cut ties. Nevertheless, remigration continues to be supported by the National Rally's rival, Zemmour's Reconquête, and Marion Marechal's Identity–Liberties, a split from Reconquête.
In March 2019 the German Identitarian movement began a "remigration campaign" which included governmental petitions, a "flashmob" outside a mosque and a demonstration in front of the Federal Ministry of the Interior, Building and Community in Berlin, where the protesters demanded the repatriation of Islamic refugees back to the Middle East. It was reported that the group were distributing posters aimed at Syrian refugees that read "The war is over. Syria needs you" and referenced a "remigration policy".
In May 2019, Katrin Ebner-Steiner, leader of AfD in Bavaria, indicated that the deportation of non-whites from Germany was a preferable policy to racial integration, after she called for "Remigration instead of integration" at a conference for the Southern wing of the party.
Ahead of the 2019 European Parliament election, Germany's opposition party, the far-right Alternative for Germany, made remigration part of their policy platform, openly calling for "remigration, instead of mass immigration", and stating that "Germany and Europe must put in place remigration programs on the largest possible scale". AfD MP Markus Frohnmaier has repeatedly worn a slogan reading "Remigration Ministry" into the Bundestag.
In January 2024, Correctiv reported that members of the AfD had secretly met with figures from the German and Austrian far-right in a meeting in Potsdam in November 2023, in which they allegedly discussed a "remigration" plan for deporting immigrants, which could include naturalised German citizens. The figures present included the Identitarian activist Martin Sellner.
In July 2025 the AfD Bundestag group removed a demand for "remigration" from its seven-point policy proposal as part of a softening of its immigration stance ahead of the next German federal election. However, many political scientists are sceptical if the shift is "anymore than cosmetic".
In May 2025, Lega MEP Roberto Vannacci addressed a 'Remigration Summit' in Milan, expressing support for remigration and stating that "remigration is not a slogan but a concrete proposal." In the same month, Lega MEP Isabella Tovaglieri similarly called for a "systematic remigration campaign".
In its 2023 election programme, JA21 advocated for "promoting remigration in case of failed integration".
The Forum for Democracy (FvD) advocates for "mass remigration" in order to maintain a "white Europe", and has criticised the PVV for focusing more on reducing immigration than promoting remigration.
In April 2025, Chega leader Andre Ventura expressed support for remigration of foreign nationals and dual nationals who have committed crimes in Portugal as part of his 2025 Portuguese legislative election campaign.
Vox's economic and housing program, presented in June 2025, explicitly calls for "remigration" of legal immigrants who "decide not to integrate" in Spain. Vox MP Rocío de Meer, the party's spokeswoman for demographic emergency and social policies, has suggested eight million people in Spain, including second generation immigrants, would be eligible for remigration if Vox took power, though the party subsequently clarified that this was not the number that Vox believes should be deported.
Swedish Migration Minister Johan Forssell, a member of the Moderate Party, has stated that "remigration" is an important issue for Sweden, and that wider use of voluntary repatriation in line with the policy followed by Denmark would be one of the options considered by his government.
As of 2025, the Homeland Party, Britain First, and the UK Independence Party (UKIP) support remigration as a policy. Former UKIP MP Douglas Carswell has advocated for a "voluntary remigration scheme offering £20,000 per individual (or £50,000 per family) to immigrants from Muslim-majority countries" to return.
According to Nick Lowles, one of the authors of a report by Hope not Hate, in a related concept, members of the counter-jihad movement "believe there will be a confrontation between Islam and the West and there can be no accommodation so the only solution can be to expel followers of Islam from Britain and Europe".
Usage of the term in the United States has spiked in the months leading up to the 2024 presidential election. In September, the Republican Party’s presidential nominee, Donald Trump, called for "remigration" of illegal immigrants to their home countries and suspending refugee resettlement, also pledging to "do large deportations in Springfield, Ohio", referring to the town's community of legal Haitian immigrants. The usage mainstreamed the term in the country. In May 2025 the Department of State released a "reorganisation chart" that included the creation of an "Office of Remigration". As President, Trump once again endorsed "remigration" in June 2025 as "reversing the invasion" of illegal immigrants into the United States. In July 2025 Trump claimed that the One Big Beautiful Bill Act would allow for remigration to be implemented. White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller has been described as an advocate for remigration within the Trump administration.
Following the victory of Zohran Mamdani, a naturalised U.S. citizen, in the 2025 New York City Democratic mayoral primary, several Republicans associated with Trump's Make America Great Again movement, including U.S. Representative Andy Ogles, called for Mamdani's denaturalisation and deportation from the United States.
In October 2025, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security triggered controversy after tweeting “remigrate” from its official X account.
In August 2017, protestors flew banners throughout Quebec City, calling for the remigration of non-whites from the Quebec capital. That same month, it was reported how Identity Evropa, who later rebranded themselves as the American Identity Movement, supported the remigration of immigrants from the United States.
Atalante is a far-right group based in Quebec which has repeatedly called for remigration.
The Dominion Society of Canada is a Canadian political organization which advocates for remigration.
has described remigration as a form of [[demagoguery]] that would lead to ethnic cleansing. Arguing that France has had a mixed genetic heritage since [[Gallic|Roman Gaul]] times, he has questioned the practicality of implementing remigration and the number of generations that would require investigation in pursuit of "purity".
Critics have raised significant concerns about the feasibility and legality of implementing remigration policies. The concept presents fundamental practical challenges, as the precise mechanism for deporting naturalised citizens and those born in the country remains unclear. Experts in human rights law note that remigration policies would likely violate international legal principles, particularly the principle of non-refoulement enshrined in the 1951 Refugee Convention, which prohibits the deportation of individuals to countries where their life or freedom would be threatened.
From an economic perspective, critics argue that remigration policies contradict the actual drivers of contemporary demographic challenges. Labour economists point out that the factors increasing the appeal of remigration rhetoric - falling birth rates, labour shortages, and a lack of new businesses and services - are most feasibly addressed through immigration rather than mass deportation.
Some political scientists argue that mainstream adoption of remigration rhetoric and policies, rather than countering far-right movements, may actually strengthen them. Research suggests that when centrist and centre-right parties adopt far-right policy positions, the electoral advantage typically accrues to the actual far-right parties rather than to the parties attempting to co-opt their rhetoric.
Historians have noted ideological similarities between remigration and fascism. Historian Emilio Gentile has defined fascism as centred on "the absolute primacy of the nation, understood as an ethnically homogeneous organic community," a goal that remigration advocates similarly pursue through the removal of non-majority ethnic groups. Both remigration and historical fascist movements employ mass deportation as a primary mechanism for achieving ethnic homogeneity.
The terminology used to describe remigration has also drawn historical scrutiny. The term "remigration" was adopted by contemporary far-right movements partly because it had positive historical associations with post-Second World War refugee returns in German-speaking countries, thereby avoiding the word "deportation" and its associations with Nazi Germany forced relocations and The Holocaust. This linguistic choice has been noted by scholars as significant because Nazi Germany's own population policies escalated progressively. Prior to World War II, Nazi leadership promoted Jewish emigration through discriminatory policies; by 1939, these policies had escalated to forced deportation and ghettoization; and eventually to genocide and The Holocaust, resulting in the systematic murder of approximately six million Jews. Scholars studying remigration rhetoric have drawn attention to this historical escalation pattern, cautioning that similar incremental escalations have preceded mass atrocities in the twentieth century.
In the United States, scholars have linked remigration discourse to white nationalist ideology. Analysts note that some proponents frame remigration as a mechanism for preserving or establishing white majority populations in given territories. Communication scholars studying the concept have characterised it as "an established part of the linguistic toolbox of white supremacy" in European contexts.
Scholars have also examined the strategic use of euphemistic language in remigration discourse. The vagueness of the term "remigration" has been identified by researchers as allowing for the introduction of extreme positions into mainstream political discourse whilst obscuring their ideological roots. This linguistic strategy has been compared to historical fascist use of euphemisms to obscure the true nature of ethnic and racial policies.
|
|
