“Remigration”: The Polished Lie of Ethnic Cleansing in Racist America
By Dr. Sabri Bebawi
In today’s increasingly volatile political climate, where dog whistles have become megaphones and hate wears a tailored suit, a new term has crept into public discourse: remigration. At first glance, it may appear technical, bureaucratic, even benign. But behind this carefully chosen word lies a sinister reality. Remigration is not about policy; it is about purging. It is a euphemism for ethnic cleansing, sanitized language adopted by white supremacists and far-right ideologues to make inhumanity sound like a rational plan.
The term has taken root in America’s racist soil, cultivated by movements that seek to reverse decades of civil rights progress and multicultural development. It represents an ideological effort to erase, to remove, to return America to an imagined past, one where whiteness reigned unchallenged and unshared. In this rebranding of hatred, remigration becomes a tool of rhetorical manipulation, designed to make bigotry sound like governance.
The Language of Genocide, Revisited
Throughout history, oppressive regimes have cloaked violence in euphemism. The Nazis labeled their plan to exterminate Jews “the Final Solution.” During the Rwandan genocide, Tutsis were referred to as “cockroaches.” In apartheid South Africa, forced removals were called “relocations.” Today, remigration enters the lexicon as the latest in this long and bloody tradition, language that disguises violence, rendering it more palatable to the public.
In essence, remigration promotes the forced or coerced removal of immigrants, minorities, and non-Christian populations. The goal is to ethnically reengineer society under the pretense of “restoring order” or “preserving culture.” It is white nationalism with a new coat of paint, wrapped in the flag, and presented as patriotism.
America’s History of Erasure
The idea of ethnic cleansing is not new to the United States. The forced removal of Native Americans, the internment of Japanese Americans, the Chinese Exclusion Act, and Jim Crow laws all reflect a long-standing national urge to control and contain racial “others.” What we are witnessing now is not a sudden shift, but a resurgence, emboldened by extremist media, embattled institutions, and political figures who traffic in fear and nostalgia.
The Trump era mainstreamed racist language, gave voice to xenophobic policies, and emboldened those who believe America should be reserved for a chosen few. “Build the wall,” “Go back to your country,” and “Make America great again” were not mere slogans. They were ideological foundations for exclusionary politics. Remigration is simply the next phase in that campaign, a quieter, deadlier phrase that aims to remove rather than integrate.
The Illusion of Voluntariness
Supporters of remigration often claim they advocate only for “voluntary return.” But in an atmosphere of constant surveillance, racial profiling, hate crimes, family separations, and ICE raids, the line between “voluntary” and coerced is a moral farce. When people are made to feel unwelcome, unsafe, and unworthy, leaving becomes a survival mechanism, not a choice.
And who is being targeted? Latin American immigrants. Muslim communities. Black Americans wrongly labeled as “outsiders.” Asian Americans falsely accused of “dual loyalty.” Jews, LGBTQ+ people, and anyone who does not fit the idealized image of a white, Christian America. This is not about legality—it is about supremacy. It is about constructing a monoculture by silencing or expelling those who challenge its myth.
Words Matter: Naming the Evil
Euphemisms are not harmless. They are weapons. They anesthetize the public, dulling moral instinct and creating space for atrocities. To allow remigration into our political dialogue is to normalize the unspeakable. It is to make room for fascism while pretending we are still debating immigration.
Let us be clear: remigration is not a respectable term. It is not a policy worth discussing. It is the linguistic twin of ethnic cleansing, a word that enables violence by cloaking it in civility. It must be exposed, condemned, and rejected without qualification.
A Moral Reckoning
America must choose. We can either continue down this path of exclusion, sanitized language, and racial purification, or we can confront the truth and fight for a pluralistic, democratic society. There is no middle ground. There is no neutrality in the face of euphemized hate.
If we are to preserve any sense of moral decency, we must challenge not only the policies of racism, but also the language that makes those policies possible. Words can shape consciousness, and consciousness shapes history.
Remigration is a lie. And like all lies born of hatred, it must be torn apart by truth.