Abstract
Well into 2018, the narrative of international migration continued being dominated by (especially media and populist) accounts of migrants from developing and least developed countries undertaking perilous journeys to Europe. The narrative tells of people desperately attempting to escape poverty (and, perhaps, war and conflict too) for better life overseas. With a focus on Africans, this chapter argues that “poverty” as an explanation of the purported unabated attempts by the migrants to go to Europe is too simplistic. Rather, the chapter considers informality and borders as meaningful concepts through which the type of migration to Europe that authorities and border agencies there seem to be failing to curb should be explained. It boils down to the influence of history on Africans and the way in which they fundamentally perceive and approach nation-state borders. Both of these factors also influence the African migrants’ orientation and attitudes towards the socioeconomic and political realities of a globalising world.
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Notes
- 1.
Project details available on the project webpage: http://ipss-addis.org/research/research_projects/migration_dialogue_platform_based_on_-african_vo.php, Accessed 12 November 2019.
- 2.
Ketu is the ancient Yoruba city of Dahomey (now Benin).
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Nshimbi, C.C. (2020). Life in the Fringes: Informality, African Migrants’ Perception of the Border and Attitudes Towards Migrating to Europe. In: Moyo, I., Nshimbi, C., Laine, J. (eds) Migration Conundrums, Regional Integration and Development. Africa's Global Engagement: Perspectives from Emerging Countries. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-2478-3_7
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