XIX ISA World Congress of Sociology (July 15-21, 2018)

561

Violence Embedded in Return Migration

RC31 Sociology of Migration (host committee)

Language: English

While research highlights the different aspects of return migrations, still little is known about the ‘dark side’ associated to them—the violence suffered by the returnees. In the context of the rising volume of international migrants, increasingly strict migration regimes and frequent use of deportation, it is critical to acknowledge the violence suffered by the return migrants. The available empirical evidence provides examples of return migration caused by violence and abuses suffered in the ‘receiving country,’ violence continuum suffered throughout the process of—especially—involuntary return migration, and after the return, back in the country of origin (Coutin 2010; Boehm 2011, 2016). This panel welcomes papers that contribute to developing a research agenda on the links between (in)voluntary return migration and violence understood not only as physical, but also in terms of structural (Galtung 1969, Golash-Boza 2012), symbolic (Bourdieu 1979), political (Bourgois 2001), everyday (Scheper-Hughes 1992) and other types of this social phenomenon (Scheper-Hughes, Bourgois 2004). This session encourages the theoretical development and elaboration of research questions on the following possible areas: 

• Return migration brought about by discrimination and violence;
• Violence in the experience of deportation;
• Return migration to a violent place;
• Execution of violence over the returnees;
• Gendered nature of violence in the return migration;
• Forms of violence and actors using it over returnees;
• Violence continuum suffered by migrants;
• The researcher as a witness of return migration-related violence.

Papers on different regions of the world and returnees’ violence experiences are welcome.