On February 9, Austrian white nationalist Martin Sellner made an announcement on X proclaiming the creation of a new organization: the Institute for Remigration (IFR).
IFR takes its name from a policy proposal called “remigration,” popularized by Sellner in recent years, which promotes the forced removal of all non-white immigrants in Western countries — a continental ethnic cleansing. With this new project, Sellner hopes to “unify, strengthen, and scale the vision of remigration across Europe” using “creative PR and spectacular events.”
Sellner’s remigration proposal targets three groups over the course of 30 years: “illegals,” “non-citizens,” and “non-assimilated” peoples, meaning Sellner would like to forcibly deport asylum seekers, migrants with residence or work permits, and citizens who he deems are “part of foreign parallel societies.” Ultimately, Sellner hopes for Western countries to become white ethnostates that forbid any form of diversity by “stop[ping] any funding of anti-white/patriotic propaganda, individuals & institutions.” Anti-white is a term commonly used by the far right to imply that anything other than a white supremacist society where minorities are treated as second-class citizens is akin to discrimination against the white “natives.”
Remigration is the supposed antidote to the “Great Replacement” conspiracy theory, which suggests that white people are being intentionally “replaced” with non-white migrants by “elites.” Supporters of the conspiracy theory have committed several acts of targeted mass violence against migrants, Muslims, and Jews, in the United States, Canada, Germany, and New Zealand, among other countries.
Sellner has a history of hateful activism dating back to the early 2000s. He once belonged to an openly neo-Nazi group called “Stolz und Frei” (Proud and Free), was mentored by Gottfried Küssel, who was imprisoned twice in Austria for “Nazi revivalism,” and in 2006 placed a swastika sticker onto a synagogue in Baden bei Wien, Austria. After renouncing his neo-Nazi associations, Sellner rose to prominence spearheading the white nationalist pan-European Generation Identity (GI) network, founded in 2012, until its dissolution by the French government in 2021, and then Identitäre Bewegung Österreich (Identitarian Movement Austria, IBÖ). Sellner’s bigotry earned him admiration from the Christchurch mosque attacker, who, inspired by the “Great Replacement” conspiracy theory, killed 51 people and injured another 89 in a series of mass shootings targeting two New Zealand mosques in 2019. During the subsequent investigation, it was revealed the shooter donated nearly $1,700 to the Identitarian movement and exchanged emails with Sellner, though no charges were brought against Sellner.
Despite claiming to have “left [Nazism] behind a long time ago,” Sellner and GI received support from neo-Nazis such as American David Duke, who asked on X for donations from his American supporters for the racist, anti-migrant GI “Defend Europe” campaign in 2017, which involved GI chartering a boat in the Mediterranean to prevent migrants from entering Europe and intercepting humanitarian ships offering aid to migrants in distress. Neo-Nazis were also present at a secret meeting held in Potsdam, Germany, in November 2023, at which Sellner delivered a lecture on remigration. Members of the far-right Alternative Fur Deutschland (Alternative For Germany, AfD) were also in attendance.
In November 2024, Sellner was invited to, and virtually attended, the white nationalist American Renaissance conference to discuss his remigration policy proposal. In May 2025, Sellner was a primary organizer of the Remigration Summit in Gallarate, Italy, at which 300 – 400 far-right activists gathered to discuss remigration. The conference hosted other Identitarians from around Europe, members of the AfD, a former Trump-endorsed GOP candidate and Turning Point USA (TPUSA) field representative, and a representative of the American far-right White Papers Policy Institute.
Years of experience campaigning for remigration and currying favor with far-right politicians have garnered Sellner the political capital to launch the Institute for Remigration. Sellner recently claimed IFR has “a core team of experienced organizers, designers, researchers, and PR professionals,” “a potential office in Vienna [Austria],” and “a concrete plan.” Sellner also claimed IFR is already in “constant talks with potential sponsors and experts in demography, law, and politics.” Sellner’s dream for pan-European remigration was likely boosted by Donald Trump’s remigration policy, as Sellner said. “The American example [of remigration] matters” (Read GPAHE’s analysis of Trump’s remigration strategy here). However, it appears Sellner is continuing to focus his efforts on Europe, claiming that “The United States has…a different migration history,” and is throwing his weight behind Restore Britain, a new political party campaigning on remigration, led by Rupert Lowe. Sellner claims, “Restore Britain has the potential to become a hub and catalytic engine for the wider European movement,” and that IFR “aim[s] to build on a non-party level” in the same vein as Restore Britain.
Sellner’s IFR is not the first project aimed at making remigration a political reality. In 2024, members of the Swiss neo-Nazi group Junge Tat (Youth Action) created “Vision Remigration” in a short-lived attempt to “[formulate] solutions for current migration policy and population exchange, which are grouped together under the term remigration.” In 2025, former People’s Party of Canada Executive Director Daniel Tyrie created the Dominion Society of Canada (DSC), which aims to pressure mainstream political figures into adopting remigration into their policies. Tyrie “reject[s] any association with ethnic cleansing.” And, of course, Donald Trump’s second administration is actively engaging with remigration as policy, which has so-far resulted in the deaths of 32 people in ICE custody during 2025 and ICE killing two American citizesn during its recent immigration crackdown in Minneapolis.
If Sellner’s new institute is successful in making remigration a reality in Europe, the violence that the United States has seen will spread transnationally — with the potential to displace and even physically harm millions.
