Human Dignity Along a Spectrum: Practicing Dignity in the Enforcement of Returns of Non-Citizens From the EU

Human dignity is widely invoked and operationalized as a normative basis for safeguarding the rights of non-citizens across return enforcement practices. In this context, this article critically examines how “human dignity” is mobilized and practiced in relation to enforced return processes in the European Union (EU). Drawing on 27 interviews conducted across 10 EU countries with deportation fundamental rights monitors, implementers of assisted “voluntary” return programmes, and other experts, the paper explores how the “dignified” treatment of returnees is shaped along a spectrum of return procedures spanning the “deportation continuum.” The fieldwork analysis demonstrates how practitioners define dignity through both minimal and more expansive thresholds. It further shows how these “practices of dignity” frequently operate as forms of harm mitigation and articulate, as well as justify, the return process and its technical implementation. Overall, the article aims to stimulate reflection on the uses and practices of human dignity in migration and returns from the EU, distinguishing between types of enforced returns, and shedding light on the (rather unexplored) subjective understandings of return practitioners, whose interpretations and approaches of dignity for returning migrants vary.