self-deportation

self +‎ deportation

self-deportation (plural self-deportations)

1. 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.
   • 2007, Dan Kanstroom, Deportation Nation, →ISBN, page 218:

     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.

   • 2011, John M. O. Igbokwe, A Broken Mission, →ISBN, page 8:

     But in a show of one of the lucid flashes common to dementia, Fabian executed a document in which he stated he was not requesting a ticket for self-deportation, but only for a visit to Nigeria.

   • 2014, Matt Barreto & ‎Gary Segura, Latino America, →ISBN:

     As mentioned earlier, Romney said that he would address the issue of the 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the United States through a policy of “self-deportation.”

   • 2015, Matthew P. Fitzpatrick, Purging the Empire: Mass Expulsions in Germany, 1871-1914, →ISBN, page 24:

     Even noted opponents of convict colonialism such as Alexander Merensky noted that the utility of transportation was already well understood by those amongst the urban poor who had, he argued, resorted to 'self-deportation' through mass emigration to better their lives.