Decolonisation in the academy is a political project and continual process but has become the equivalent of clickbait without any real transfer of power to those who still do not have academic authority or power. In principle, the field of migration studies is ideally situated to engage in questions and processes of decolonisation, with its focus on border, diaspora and mobility and core concepts of nation and migrant. And due to this seeming default alignment with the vocabulary of decolonisation and decolonisation studies, migration studies scholars have jumped straight into writing about decolonisation in migration studies. However, there has been a limited reflection on who is doing the decolonisation and from where is the problem of colonisation addressed. The absence of this discussion of by whom, from where and how to decolonise migration studies cannot continue if the aim is to move beyond rhetorical decolonisation. This paper points to how decolonisation in migration studies has come to be at risk of being colonised within the Western academy and offers pointers to what form decolonisation might actually take.