Embarking on an Anthropology of Removal.

This article presents fieldwork conducted in Somaliland examining a group of Somalis who were deported from the U.S., and comments on the sociology of deportation. It focuses specifically on the economic and legal aspects of deportation, detailing the experiences of the Somalis beginning with their imprisonment in the U.S. for "illegal alien" status and discusses subsequent difficulties they faced socially incorporating themselves into their country of origin after being deported. The study is aimed at establishing a need for an ethnographic investigation of deportation and its prevalence in the U.S. Comments on the article by several anthropologists are also presented.