What is remigration, the far-right fringe idea going mainstream?

"From the US to Europe, the idea of forcibly expelling non-white immigrants is gaining steam. Where does it come from? Last week, Republican Ohio gubernatorial hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy challenged other Republicans over their idea that ancestry or heritage is what makes someone truly American. The idea that a heritage American' is more American than another American is un-American at its core, Ramaswamy, who was born to Indian immigrant parents, said during Turning Point USA's annual conference."

"Remigration once a fringe far-right notion advocating the deportation of ethnic minorities is now gaining traction in United States Republican circles as President Donald Trump's second term enters the final weeks of its first year. Earlier this year, reports said that the US State Department was considering creating a department of remigration. A few months later, the Department of Homeland Security posted in favour of remigration online."

"But it is not just American far-right figures evoking the idea of remigration; European far-right leaders are also joining in. Here is a closer look at what remigration means and what its origins are. Broadly, remigration refers to when an immigrant voluntarily returns to their country of origin. However, in the context of far-right movements, remigration is a method of ethnic cleansing. For white ethnonationalists, remigration is a process through which all non-white people are forcibly removed from traditionally white countries."

"Ideas of remigration trace back to Nazi Germany in the late 1930s. The Nazis attempted to remigrate the Jews in Germany to Madagascar. But the concept got wind through the work of Renaud Camus, a French novelist who devised the Great Replacement conspiracy theory in his 2011 book, Le Grand Remplacement. His widely debunked white nationalist theory suggests that elites are replacing white Christians in the West with non-white, primarily Muslim, people through mass migration and demographic changes. Camus calls this"

Remigration originally refers to an immigrant voluntarily returning to their country of origin. Far-right movements repurpose remigration as a method of ethnic cleansing that aims to forcibly remove non-white people from traditionally white countries. The idea has gained visibility in the United States, with Republican figures and federal agencies publicly engaging with remigration language. European far-right leaders also promote remigration narratives. The concept traces to Nazi-era plans and was revived by Renaud Camus's Great Replacement theory, which claims elites are replacing white Christians with non-white, primarily Muslim, populations through migration and demographic change. Camus's theory is widely debunked but influential among white nationalists.

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