There’s No Such Place as “Away”: Flawed Metaphors of Waste Disposal for Criminal Deportation to the Pacific Islands

Abstract

There is no such place as “away” for material waste due to the scientific principle of conservation of matter. We argue that there is also no such place as “away” for people who have been deported, including to Pacific Islands, and highlight the flaw in the dehumanizing metaphor of people deported for having committed criminal activity as waste to be disposed of. By tracing the linguistic metaphor of dumping waste in its use as it is applied to deported people, we identify three underlying conceptual metaphors: “migrant disposability” and “island invisibility,” used by deporting states, and, conversely, “apportioning responsibility for waste disposal,” used by receiving states. By exploring the cases of Sāmoa, Tonga, and the Cook Islands, we show that metaphors are instrumentalized for Pacific agency and that there is no such place as “away.”