Washington DC (January 20, 2026) – The Center for the Study of Organized Hate (CSOH) today released a new report, Remigration: The Rise of a Fringe Idea into the Political Mainstream, documenting the evolution and widespread adoption of the term “remigration.”
In the wake of the Trump administration’s ongoing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) deportation efforts, remigration has served as a rallying cry to mobilize support. Administration officials openly call for remigration as a catch-all term to advance immigration policies that dehumanize migrants and citizens of migrant backgrounds. Once an obscure concept popular among European far-right ideologues, the embrace and adoption of remigration discourse in the U.S. signals the transnational spread as well as the mainstreaming of anti-democratic and anti-equalitarian values.
Remigration refers to the mass deportation of non-white immigrants in Western countries, regardless of citizenship status. Narratives promoting remigration portray Muslim migrants as a demographic and cultural threat to white European societies, framing them as incompatible with Western values. These narratives link migration to fears of “Islamization” and Islamist terrorism, generating moral panics around an alleged existential threat to Europe.
The report traces the earliest online mentions of remigration to 2010, with Dutch far-right politician Geert Wilders among its first prominent advocates in 2012. The term gained little traction until 2016, when the rise of ISIS and Europe’s refugee crisis fueled broader adoption. Between 2016 and 2022, remigration appeared approximately 32,000 times on X.
From 2023 onward, online discourse intensified dramatically. Between 2023 and 2025, there were nearly 500,000 mentions of remigration from 198,000 unique authors. The first major spike occurred in October 2023, with 13,000 mentions driven by a viral false claim that Sweden was constructing “re-migration centers” and coordinated promotion of an Identitarian Movement demonstration outside the European Parliament.
In 2024, online activity surged further, reaching 467,000 mentions from 133,000 unique authors. Virality peaked between September and October, coinciding with the Austrian Freedom Party’s (FPÖ) election victory. By 2025, remigration had gained mainstream visibility, generating 952,000 mentions from over 300,000 unique authors. Major spikes occurred in early 2025, September–October, and late November–December.
The highest volume ever recorded occurred during the week of September 1-8, with more than 71,000 mentions. This peak followed coordinated posts from high-profile figures, including X CEO Elon Musk, Dutch activist Eva Vlaardingerbroek, and former Vlaams Belang politician Dries Van Langenhove. Their viral content framed remigration as a public safety necessity, depicting white Europeans as under siege by violent “foreigners.”
Social media’s transnational infrastructure has enabled these narratives to spread rapidly across borders. Interpretations of remigration have evolved to adapt to different geographical contexts, especially from Europe to the U.S., where remigration discourse has increasingly targeted (undocumented) migrants.
“Remigration is a concept that has moved from the margins to the mainstream. Its uptake symbolizes a globally ascendant far-right movement that leverages state power to villainize and vilify minorities,” said Eviane Leidig, Director of Research and Outreach at CSOH.
The full report is available for download here
For media inquiries or to request interviews with report authors, please contact: [email protected]