Emotions and Deportation

Keynote by Karina Horsti, University of Jyväskylä and Academy of Finland.

Horsti examines how deportations are experienced and resisted across contexts. In the U.S. under Donald Trump, deportations are public spectacles that generate emotions, particularly anger, and legitimize state violence. In contrast, Nordic countries employ “slow violence,” minimizing public spectacle, yet the management of emotions remains central. Instances such as live social media coverage of disrupted deportation flights or reading deportation orders in churches illustrate how emotions enter the public sphere as forms of resistance.

Through this lens, deportations – and struggles against them – reshape communities and identities, highlighting the intersections of migration, state power, media, and culture.