Cross-Country Variation in Deportation Risk: Stylized Facts and a Research Agenda

Abstract

While considerable effort has been devoted to measuring international migration and improving data on migrant remittances, comparable information on deportation and forced return remains fragmented across countries. To address this gap, we assembled administrative data from official governmental statistics in deporting countries and complemented them, where necessary, with information obtained through freedom-of-information requests. The resulting DepRisk database covers 42 deporting countries, including most OECD members, and reports returns by citizenship for 204 origin countries and territories, yielding approximately 7,200 bilateral deportation corridors with multiple indicators of migration enforcement. Using these data, this research note maps deportation and return practices across countries and deportation corridors. Two main findings emerge. First, meaningful cross-country comparison remains challenging because deportation statistics reflect important differences in legal definitions, administrative procedures, and reporting practices. Second, despite these measurement challenges, enforcement intensities vary substantially across both deporting countries and bilateral corridors. Building on these findings and the emerging literature on deportation regimes, the note identifies three priorities for future research: improving the availability and comparability of deportation statistics, refining the conceptualization and measurement of deportation risk, and explaining variation in deportation regimes across different political and institutional contexts.