Paper short abstract:

This paper examines return mobilities of young Ghanaian men who are forcefully relocated to Ghana. It explores the transportation, speed, duration, and violence of relocation versus the legal mobility categorisations and discusses return vis-à-vis other parts of their journeys and post-return life.

Paper long abstract:

This paper examines involuntary return (im)mobilities, with a focus on young Ghanaian men who have engaged in precarious migration projects and are forcefully relocated to Ghana from North Africa and Western countries. Inspired by Cresswell's notion of a politics of mobility, I explore the means of transportation, the speed and duration of the relocation processes, the modes of enforcement and violence encountered (friction), and the legal categorisations of return; likewise I examine the affective and embodied experience of (im)mobility en route and 'back home'. Four types of relocation processes are identified: deportation by air, overland deportation, evacuation, and flight from conflict. While these returns differ according to speed, friction and legal categorization, they share an experiential dimension of taking place against the movers' intentions and will.

Based on three fieldworks in Ghana between 2012 and 2015, I further analyse the shifting temporal, spatial and affective dimensions of these return mobilities, linking them with the 'outbound' and onwards journeys and post-return life. Some returnees find themselves in the same or worse social and economic situations as prior to their return, often engaging in precarious mobile livelihoods in Ghana. Others succeed in social and economic regeneration, (re-)positioning themselves as respectable persons who no longer engage in high-risk or irregular mobility. Many returnees are engaged in several migration projects over time, however, regardless of the mode of return. A temporal and long-term perspective is therefore crucial to understand the pacing as well as the temporal and spatial trajectories of return and post-return life.