On the durability and the decomposition of citizenship: the social logics of forced return migration in Cape Verde

Abstract

This article explores the impact of deportation, a state practice increasingly applied by European and North American governments, on notions of sociality in transnational social fields. In particular, it concentrates on the dynamics between formal citizenship on the one hand and the moral economies of belonging and membership on the other. Drawing on anthropological fieldwork in Cape Verde, where deportation is producing a new social minority, this article examines the confluence of social and formal legal practices of exercising membership in transnational fields. After summarising the constitutive features of Cape Verdean transnational social formation, the trajectories and perspectives of deportees are highlighted in relation to their family networks, as well as in their encounters with the wider society and state structures. It is argued that understandings of social inclusion and perceptions of membership are embedded in moral discourses on ‘law’ and ‘justice’ as they circulate within transnational social fields. In the context of forced return migration, citizenship emerges as an arena for claiming legitimacy and integration and likewise becomes a key mode of the formulation of conditionalities for integration and social exclusion.

Keywords:

• deportation
• Cape Verde
• transnational families
• citizenship
• transnational moralities

Acknowledgements

This study was based on anthropological fieldwork in Cape Verde, which was divided into two parts (10/2006-7/2007 and 3-4/2008), and was financed by Freiburg University and the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) in the form of two post-doctoral scholarships. A former version of this paper was presented in 2008 at the workshop ‘Rethinking Citizenship’, organised by Julia Eckert and Lale Yalçın-Heckmann. I owe a special note of appreciation to Julia Eckert and Katharina Schramm for their thoughtful comments on an earlier version of this paper and to Nicholas De Genova, who offered detailed suggestions and also inspired the title of this paper. Furthermore, I wish to express my gratitude to the Instituto das Comunidades, the Ministério dos Negócios Estrangeiros and the Cape Verdean consulate in Boston for providing valuable background information and statistics and to those individuals I met in the field who shared their time and gave insights into their perceptions of life.

Notes

1. See De Genova (2009) and Hagan et al. (2008) for the details of legal changes since 1996 with regard to deportation measures and Pratt (2005) for an overview of different national frameworks bringing together immigration law and the fight against terrorism.

2. http://www.dhs.gov/ximgtn/statistics/publications/YrBk06En.shtm [Accessed 8 September]. The majority (1,043,381) of these removals have been so-called voluntary departures of Mexican nationals, who have been apprehended by the US Border Patrol and returned to Mexico. See also http://www.migrationinformation.org [Accessed 8 September] for further information on the issue.

3. Despite the transnationalisation of migration studies, the terms ‘home’ or ‘sending’ country on the one hand and ‘destination’ or ‘receiving’ country on the other are still appropriate for describing the conditionality and spatial direction of migration. However, in the context of deportation, these terms are inverted, ‘home’ rather naming the former country of destination and ‘receiving country’ becoming the initial country of origin.

4. Notable exceptions are Susan Coutin and Elana Zilberg for the situation of deportees in El Salvador and Nathalie Peutz for Somalia.

5. Each of the nine Cape Verdean islands has a tendency to certain migration destinations, which is the result of historical migration patterns. For instance, the two eastern islands, Sal and Boavista, have huge diaspora populations in Italy, whereas Sao Vicente, one of the northern islands, has a strong migrant presence in England and the Netherlands (Carling 2001, p. 9). In the USA, larger Cape Verdean migrant communities can be found in the Greater Boston metropolitan area (Halter 1993, Sánchez Gibau 2005).

6. According to a statistical overview of 2008 provided by the Instituto das Comunidades (part of the Ministério dos Negócios Estrangeiros, Cooperação e Comunidades de Cabo Verde), the number of deportations has increased annually, beginning with five in 1992 and reaching its peak in 2007 with 128 officially recorded deportees. Until 2002, Portugal was the country sending back the largest contingent, but since 2002, the majority have been sent back from the USA. In 2007, 50% of all deportees were sent back from the USA, 33% from Portugal, 8% from France and the rest from Spain, Luxembourg, Germany and Brazil. Of those returning to Brava, 100% came back from the USA; of those returning to Fogo, 83% were returning from the USA, 15% from Portugal and 2% from France. The ratio of female deportees has always been around 5%. In addition to this, it is important to note that only a minority of deportees get registered at the moment of their entry into Cape Verde. Therefore, estimates of the actual number of deportees should be considerably higher (Instituto das Comunidades 2008).

7. All personal names have been replaced by common Cape Verdean names to protect the privacy of the individuals involved in my research.

8. According to official statistics, the percentage of those registered who were sent back due to their undocumented status was between 35% (2007) and 11% (2008) (Instituto das Comunidades 2008).

9. These observations are reinforced by studies by Nuijten (2005) and Hagan et al. (2008) who examined the effects of deportation on Mexican family relations and came to the conclusion that the overwhelming majority of Mexican deportees will do everything they can to return to the USA to remain part of the circular migration extending between Mexico and the USA. This option, however, is not realistic for Cape Verdeans because they usually cannot find clandestine ways to re-enter the USA.