Abstract
While deportation of Africans is a commonplace practice in China, deportation and its aftermath, as experienced by deportees, remain at the margin of research. This article examined the spatial condition of deportation afterlife using data from a study on the post-deportation experiences of Nigerian men deported from China. Specifically, it focused on the city as a space and place of post-deportation coping, including the practices of translocality associated with socioeconomic recovery and reintegration. In doing this, it engaged with how migration experience, deportation loss, masculinity, recalibrated socialities and self-stigmatisation contribute towards shaping the sense of place and strategies of place-(re)making of Nigerian deportees. The article enriched the discourse of deportation and the city at the intersection of deportation afterlife, masculinity and deportees' reintegration. It also contributed to the broader deportation literature, especially in the relation to Africans deported from East Asia.