Self-deportation

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A voluntary emigration by members of an unwanted or illegal population, often as a result of policies that make staying in their country of residence difficult.

    "Doak encouraged local immigration officers, law enforcement agencies, and repatriation-sympathetic newspapers to join forces to publicize deportation raids, frightening many Mexicans into self-deportation."

Example

More examples

"Doak encouraged local immigration officers, law enforcement agencies, and repatriation-sympathetic newspapers to join forces to publicize deportation raids, frightening many Mexicans into self-deportation."

Etymology

From self- + deportation.

More for "self-deportation"

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.