Nauja Kleist
Danish Institute For International Studies, Migration, Faculty Member
- I work as senior researcher in the Global Transformations Research Unit at the Danish Institute for International Stu... moreI work as senior researcher in the Global Transformations Research Unit at the Danish Institute for International Studies, Copenhagen. My research interests include international migration in relation to mobility regimes; return migration, especially deportation; diaspora mobilization; and states' migration-development policies. I am particularly inspired by theories on gender, hope, (im)mobility, social fields, social recognition and positioning, and belonging. My recent research analyses the social effects of migration management for West Africa, particularly in relation to involuntary return to Ghana. Another long-term project is Somali diaspora mobilization.edit
How do migrants enact their mobilities in contexts where formalized labor migration is minimal, and where the European fight against irregular African migration is restricting the possibilities for informal border crossings? And which... more
How do migrants enact their mobilities in contexts where formalized labor migration is minimal, and where the European fight against irregular African migration is restricting the possibilities for informal border crossings? And which roles do cultural norms, social institutions, and individual agency play in facilitating migration? To answer these questions, this article offers a comparative reflection on the growing interest in the mediation of migration that emphasizes the actors and structures that shape and facilitate a migrant trajectory. Drawing on our own research in various West African contexts, and on a broader reading of research evoking the mediation of mobility, we engage primarily with the emerging scholarship on migration infrastructures. As a contribution to the study of how mobility is mediated by actors and structures external to the migrant, we suggest that it is important to move beyond the tendency to restrict analysis in a migrant-/institution-centric trade-off in which emphasis is either placed on migrant aspirations and capabilities or the institutionalized mediation of migration. We further propose to analytically distinguish between the mediation of migration-denoting the processes of facilitation and restriction of mobility through institutions, external interventions, and socio
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This chapter explores highly skilled male return migration to Ghana, with focus on two aspects: first how return migrants are engaged in governing and contributing to development in their hometown through engagement in politics,... more
This chapter explores highly skilled male return migration to Ghana, with focus on two aspects: first how return migrants are engaged in governing and contributing to development in their hometown through engagement in politics, chieftaincy affairs, migrant associations and elite clubs; and second how they perceive their engagement, responsibilities and the challenges they face. The chapter shows that the returnees in case are embedded in several transnational and (trans)local fields and that they articulate their retun in line with local notions of big men as well as policy discourse on migrants as development agents.
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This introduction sets the stage for the volume Hope and Uncertainty in Contemporary African Migration (Kleist and Thorsen eds., 2017, Routledge). It discusses hope as an analytical prism through which to examine African migration and... more
This introduction sets the stage for the volume Hope and Uncertainty in Contemporary African Migration (Kleist and Thorsen eds., 2017, Routledge). It discusses hope as an analytical prism through which to examine African migration and (im)mobilities in a context of stratified globalization, inequality and restrictive mobility regimes. While images and visions of the good life elsewhere are circulated at the global level, the vast majority of Africans are excluded from the circuits of legal international migration beyond their home region. Hope, characterized by simultaneous potentiality and uncertainty, lends itself to analysis of how and if people keep on having faith in migration as a way of coping with uncertainty and difficult life situations.
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Deportation has become a widespread way for destination and transit migration countries to manage and deter irregular migrants, in both Europe and Africa. Yet, post-deportation life – especially for deportees expelled from countries in... more
Deportation has become a widespread way for destination and transit migration countries to manage and deter irregular migrants, in both Europe and Africa. Yet, post-deportation life – especially for deportees expelled from countries in the so-called global south – remains an understudied area. This chapter addresses the topic through an analysis of life after deportation among expelled Ghanaian labour migrants, who have engaged in high-risk migration across the Sahara to Libya and in some cases across the Mediterranean to Europe. The chapter is published in the volume Hope and Uncertainty in Contemporary African Migration (Kleist and Thorsen eds., 2017, Routledge).
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The paper analyses the meaning of ‘the Somaliland diaspora’, not as a nostalgic and aesthetic community, but as a moral community engaged in a transnational political struggle. It analyses how different meanings of diaspora are employed... more
The paper analyses the meaning of ‘the Somaliland diaspora’, not as a nostalgic and aesthetic community, but as a moral community engaged in a transnational political struggle. It analyses how different meanings of diaspora are employed and performed among Somalilanders on one specific event: the demonstration held at Parliament Square in London for the recognition of Somaliland on the 17. of March 2004. The paper unfolds the demonstration and the events relating to this event and argue that a possible and fruitful way of studying issues relating to ‘diaspora’ is by exploring the ways the term is performed and actively used in transnational political mobilisations. In focusing on one specific event the paper shows how a diasporic event is constructed not only by a shared and publicly performed identity, often anchored in shared symbols and a communal history of suffering and a vision of return, but also by conflicting meanings and practices that exist within diasporas themselves and...
Abstract This paper examines social and migratory trajectories of involuntary return, with a focus on Ghanaian labour migrants who have engaged in high-risk and precarious migration projects. Four types of involuntary return are... more
Abstract This paper examines social and migratory trajectories of involuntary return, with a focus on Ghanaian labour migrants who have engaged in high-risk and precarious migration projects. Four types of involuntary return are identified, based on state involvement and forced relocation processes: deportation by air, overland deportation, evacuation and flight from conflict. I show that migrants may go through several – and different modes of – involuntary returns, sometimes over just a few years. Though different ways of returning have implications for future legal mobility, it is less pertinent for migrants' post-return life where the main question confronting them is what they brought back. That involuntary returnees are seen as successful if they manage to return with money, skills or exposure reflects that migration constitutes local collective hope – an imagined pathway to transform one's life and establish a better future for one's family and oneself. Following returnees over time, I distinguish between three overall trajectories: continued precariousness, re-migration, and social and economic regeneration. Some returnees find themselves in the same or worse social and economic situations as prior to migration. Others succeed in social and economic regeneration, establishing livelihoods and (re-)positioning themselves as respectable persons. However, in many cases, post-return life is characterized by uncertainty and many returnees are engaged in several migration projects over time, regardless of the mode of involuntary return. Hence, involuntary return disrupts, slows and hampers migration projects but it does not necessarily end them.
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This article contributes to the theorization of involuntary return and moral economies in the context of economic crisis and vulnerability prompted by restrictive migration regimes and conflicts. Drawing on fieldwork in a rural town in... more
This article contributes to the theorization of involuntary return and moral economies in the context of economic crisis and vulnerability prompted by restrictive migration regimes and conflicts. Drawing on fieldwork in a rural town in Ghana where international labour migration is an established livelihood, it analyses deportations from North Africa, Israel and Europe and emergency return from Libya following the civil war in 2011. The article argues that return to the home town, rather than being detained or stuck en route, constitutes a particular context precisely because migrants face family and community expectations upon their return. Involuntary return constitutes a disruption of migration projects when migrants return empty-handed, going from being remitters to burdens for their families. This creates conflicts and disappointments within family and the local community, especially in relation to norms of provision and gender ideals. The paper highlights three effects of the m...
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Following years of civil war, many Somalis are displaced in Western countries as refugees or family re-unified persons. This situation has caused multiple losses of social position and upheavals in gender relations. Although both men and... more
Following years of civil war, many Somalis are displaced in Western countries as refugees or family re-unified persons. This situation has caused multiple losses of social position and upheavals in gender relations. Although both men and women are subject to these changes, Somalis describe the situations of men as more difficult. Taking departure in multi-sited fieldwork in Copenhagen, Somaliland and London, this article explores how Somalis negotiate respectable masculinity in the Diaspora, arguing that men’s difficulties are articulated as a transfer of male authority to the welfare state, reflecting female empowerment and male misrecognition. However, the focus on men’s loss can also be understood as processes of positioning and of re-instituting a ‘traditional’ gender baseline in which the positions of respectable versus failed masculinity are established. Finally, the article argues that Somali men negotiate and enact respectable masculinity through associational and community ...
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Research Interests: Sociology and Demography
In the afternoon of the 17th of March 2004, thousands of Somalilanders were waving their flags and banners and singing Somaliland slogans in Parliament Square in London. The crowd had started gathering outside the Home Office at about 10... more
In the afternoon of the 17th of March 2004, thousands of Somalilanders were waving their flags and banners and singing Somaliland slogans in Parliament Square in London. The crowd had started gathering outside the Home Office at about 10 in the morning, but, as it grew larger and larger during the day, had been relocated by the Metropolitan Police to Parliament Square. Not quite familiar with the colours and slogans of the crowd, most of the parliamentarians in Westminster and Portcullis House, and most of the people passing by the square, wondered who they were and what they were demonstrating for or against. To the media in the UK, the 17th of March 2004, was an important day, not because of the demonstration taking place in Parliament Square, but because the budget was presented by the Chancellor of the Exchequer to Parliament and the public. To the demonstrators and Somalilanders all over the world, however, the day was important for reasons, that had very little to do with the ...
This article examines how Northwestern European development aid agencies support the development activities of diaspora organisations, especially in fragile situations. The article interrogates the perceived relationship between diaspora... more
This article examines how Northwestern European development aid agencies support the development activities of diaspora organisations, especially in fragile situations. The article interrogates the perceived relationship between diaspora involvement and development, and how this perception is reflected in the ways in which development agencies collaborate with diaspora organisations through mainstream funding schemes, special diaspora initiatives and network support. Three tendencies are identified: a high emphasis on technical fixes; a tension between perceptions of diaspora organisations as special development agents and a mainstreaming ideal; and, finally, that diaspora organisations appear as particularly risky recipient groups to some development professionals because of their personal involvement in the country of origin. The article further argues that policy incoherence as well as underlying notions of development as planned, professionalized and based on a sedentary bias co...
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Since the early 1990s, the concept of diaspora has propagated in migration studies and gradually been appropriated by many migrant groups, who describe themselves as ‘diasporas’ in relation to political mobilisation and self-portrayal. In... more
Since the early 1990s, the concept of diaspora has propagated in migration studies and gradually been appropriated by many migrant groups, who describe themselves as ‘diasporas’ in relation to political mobilisation and self-portrayal. In this article, claims made in the name of diaspora and their conditions for possibility are analysed through a focus on Somali migration. Two main arguments are presented. Firstly, that the identity category of ‘the Somali diaspora’ is constituted between marginalisation and invocations of a transnationally committed community, dedicated to the development of the homeland. Secondly, that the proliferation of diaspora claims can be understood as part of a broader societal development where migrant groups are seen as potential political actors. On the one hand, it is suggested this relates to the so-called ‘recognition turn’ where potential political legitimacy is ascribed to social struggles driven by experiences of misrecognition or marginalisation,...
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... Boafo-Arthur, 'Chieftaincy in Ghana'; Alex B. Asiedu, Kwame A. Labi and Brempong Osei-Tutut, 'An Asanteman-World Bank heritage ... See also Richard Crook and... more
... Boafo-Arthur, 'Chieftaincy in Ghana'; Alex B. Asiedu, Kwame A. Labi and Brempong Osei-Tutut, 'An Asanteman-World Bank heritage ... See also Richard Crook and Gideon Hosu-Porblev, 'Transnational communities, policy processes and the politics of development: the case of ...
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How do Somalis residing in Denmark and repatriated Somalis in Somaliland understand the questions of repatriation, home and belonging? Which livelihood strategies and strategies of mobility do they deploy? How are the places of exile and... more
How do Somalis residing in Denmark and repatriated Somalis in Somaliland understand the questions of repatriation, home and belonging? Which livelihood strategies and strategies of mobility do they deploy? How are the places of exile and homeland experienced? And why do some Somalis in exile return to Somaliland, while others remain abroad? In this article we analyse how Somalis in Denmark and Somaliland understand and practice their own possible or actual voluntary repatriation. We do not pretend to offer the final answers to the questions above, but present some analytical reflections focusing on the interplay between abstract ideas of place, processes of place-making and very concrete livelihood strategies, often transnational in nature. Our main argument is that both questions of identity, emotions, and loyalties as well as questions of economy, responsibilities towards others and rights related to territorial entities, and citizenship are important for understanding the visions...
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Infrastructure is becoming an influential field of inquiry across the social sciences as it has been in policy related research for some time. In migration and mobility related research, the recent ...
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This article examines how Northwestern European development aid agencies support the development activities of diaspora organisations, especially in fragile situations. The article interrogates the perceived relationship between diaspora... more
This article examines how Northwestern European development aid agencies support the development activities of diaspora organisations, especially in fragile situations. The article interrogates the perceived relationship between diaspora involvement and development, and how this perception is reflected in the ways in which development agencies collaborate with diaspora organisations through mainstream funding schemes, special diaspora initiatives and network support. Three tendencies are identified: a high emphasis on technical fixes; a tension between perceptions of diaspora organisations as special development agents and a mainstreaming ideal; and, finally, that diaspora organisations appear as particularly risky recipient groups to some development professionals because of their personal involvement in the country of origin. The article further argues that policy incoherence as well as underlying notions of development as planned, professionalized and based on a sedentary bias co...
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Dette paper fokuserer pa foreningsdeltagelse blandt kvinder og maend med somalisk baggrund. Der er et stort antal somaliske foreninger i Danmark, der bl.a. arbejder med sociale forhold i Danmark eller stotter genopbygnings- og... more
Dette paper fokuserer pa foreningsdeltagelse blandt kvinder og maend med somalisk baggrund. Der er et stort antal somaliske foreninger i Danmark, der bl.a. arbejder med sociale forhold i Danmark eller stotter genopbygnings- og udviklingsprojekter Somalia. I forbindelse med mit ph.d. projekt har jeg lavet feltarbejde blandt foreningsaktive somali-danskere Kobenhavn, Somaliland og London for at udforske, hvordan foreningsengagement pavirker inklusion og eksklusion – i forhold til integration i Danmark, samt deltagelse i transnationale og diasporiske sociale rum. Kon er centralt sporgsmal i forhold til disse processer. Mange foreninger er konsopdelte, og kon bruges ofte som en kulturel og social referenceramme for organisering. Paperet tager fat pa folgende sporgsmal: Hvordan gores og artikuleres kon i forhold til organisationsprincipper, politisk mobilisering og sociale positioner? Hvilke andre faktorer og differentieringsmader spiller ind? Og hvad betyder det for deltagelse, inklusio...
Hjem og tilhørsforhold får en særlig betydning i diaspora. En somalisk kvindes og mands italesættelser af livet i Danmark viser, hvordan møderne med velfærdssamfundet er med til at skabe forskellige fortællinger om…
This paper contributes to our understanding of the social life of used computers in West Africa through analysis of the sending, distribution, recognition, and reception of recycled equipment. Based on multi-sited and longitudinal... more
This paper contributes to our understanding of the social life of used computers in West Africa through analysis of the sending, distribution, recognition, and reception of recycled equipment. Based on multi-sited and longitudinal fieldwork in Denmark and Ghana, it employs George Marcus’ suggestion of following things as a methodological selection device for ethnography. Theoretically, it engages the concept of affective circuits to address how transnational recycling, belonging, hometown development, and family relations are interlinked. I present a three-fold argument: first, that the actions of sending, distributing, recognizing, and receiving used equipment enable different actors to demonstrate and perform hometown belonging, development, and leadership; second, that these capacities reflect differentiated mobilities and connectivity of the people involved; and third, that the recycled furniture and information technology (IT) gear become upcycled to objects of value, being mob...
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ABSTRACT This article analyses how the Ghanaian state has been involved in diaspora mobilisation since independence, including both the so-called African and Ghanaian diasporas. It presents two overall arguments. Firstly, the article... more
ABSTRACT This article analyses how the Ghanaian state has been involved in diaspora mobilisation since independence, including both the so-called African and Ghanaian diasporas. It presents two overall arguments. Firstly, the article shows that Ghanaian diaspora mobilisation draws upon the legacy of mid-century political Pan-Africanism, though with a neoliberal focus from the 1990s. From the 2000s, this legacy merges with the global trend of diaspora-development policies and their emphasis on contributions to national development, both in relation to African and Ghanaian diaspora mobilisation. Secondly, the article argues that while the various diaspora mobilisation efforts have resulted in limited policy changes and rights, they have value as political spectacles where the state demonstrates its interest in diaspora groups. Likewise, they are expressions of bio-politics and constitute opportunities for the state to assert its sovereignty. Finally, the article claims that diaspora mobilisation efforts constitute flexible and ambivalent politics of belonging, based on an inherent tension between long-distance autochthony claims and the state's focus on (mainly) economic resource mobilisation.
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In this keyword, I reflect upon African diaspora in a mobilities perspective, exploring analytical and empirical resonance and tensions. Despite the boom of diaspora and mobilities studies in the last decades, research explicitly linking... more
In this keyword, I reflect upon African diaspora in a mobilities perspective, exploring analytical and empirical resonance and tensions. Despite the boom of diaspora and mobilities studies in the last decades, research explicitly linking these two literatures is still nascent. Exploring diaspora through a mobilities perspective, I suggest that attention to regimes of mobilities and migratory trajectories can yield important insights. The first perspective highlights how mobility and immobility is governed, facilitated or constrained historically and today, shedding light on the unequal distribution of safe, legal and free (im)mobility for African diaspora groups, whether ‘old’ or ‘new’; the second illuminates the twists and turns of migratory journeys or displacement, bringing attention beyond the host land – homeland axis found in some diaspora studies. Finally, turning the analytical lens around, I dwell upon temporality and belonging in diaspora studies and how they link to mobil...
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How do migrants negotiate gender and political positions in a transnational social field? What happens when migrants move between different locations? This paper examines these questions through a case study of a Somali woman and her life... more
How do migrants negotiate gender and political positions in a transnational social field? What happens when migrants move between different locations? This paper examines these questions through a case study of a Somali woman and her life in Denmark and Somaliland.
This chapter examines hope in the context of high-risk migration restrictive mobility regimes, with particular focus on life after deportation to Ghana.
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This article contributes to the theorization of involuntary return and moral economies in the context of economic crisis and vulnerability prompted by restrictive migration regimes and conflicts. Drawing on fieldwork in a rural town in... more
This article contributes to the theorization of involuntary return and moral economies in the context of economic crisis and vulnerability prompted by restrictive migration regimes and conflicts. Drawing on fieldwork in a rural town in Ghana where international labour migration is an established livelihood, it analyses deportations from North Africa, Israel and Europe and emergency return from Libya following the civil war in 2011. The article argues that return to the home town, rather than being detained or stuck en route, constitutes a particular context precisely because migrants face family and community expectations upon their return. Involuntary return constitutes a disruption of migration projects when migrants return empty-handed, going from being remitters to burdens for their families. This creates conflicts and disappointments within family and the local community, especially in relation to norms of provision and gender ideals. The paper highlights three effects of the moral economy of involuntary return. First, that involuntary return does not constitute a priori termination of migration, as many involuntary return migrants migrate again, often in high-risk ways. Second, it discusses the ambivalence of reciprocity and interdependency in families. And third, it shows how involuntary return challenges dominant ideals of masculinity.
Research Interests: African Studies, Migration, Family, Gender, Ghana, and 4 moreMigration Studies, Return Migration, Libya, and Deportation
Call for papers for the panel 'Deportation as Friction' at the 2nd Mobilities-Development conference, Radboud University, Nijmegen, June 8-9 2017: Friction in a Mobile World. Panel organizers: Nauja Kleist, Danish Institute for... more
Call for papers for the panel 'Deportation as Friction' at the 2nd Mobilities-Development conference, Radboud University, Nijmegen, June 8-9 2017: Friction in a Mobile World. Panel organizers: Nauja Kleist, Danish Institute for International Studies and Heike Drotbohm, Dep. of Anthropology and African Studies, University of Mainz. Deadline April 7.
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This chapter explores highly skilled male return migration to Ghana, with focus on two aspects: first how return migrants are engaged in governing and contributing to development in their hometown through engagement in politics,... more
This chapter explores highly skilled male return migration to Ghana, with focus on two aspects: first how return migrants are engaged in governing and contributing to development in their hometown through engagement in politics, chieftaincy affairs, migrant associations and elite clubs; and second how they perceive their engagement, responsibilities and the challenges they face. The chapter shows that the returnees in case are embedded in several transnational and (trans)local fields and that they articulate their retun in line with local notions of big men as well as policy discourse on migrants as development agents.
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Deportation has become a widespread way for destination and transit migration countries to manage and deter irregular migrants, in both Europe and Africa. Yet, post-deportation life – especially for deportees expelled from countries in... more
Deportation has become a widespread way for destination and transit migration countries to manage and deter irregular migrants, in both Europe and Africa. Yet, post-deportation life – especially for deportees expelled from countries in the so-called global south – remains an understudied area. This chapter addresses the topic through an analysis of life after deportation among expelled Ghanaian labour migrants, who have engaged in high-risk migration across the Sahara to Libya and in some cases across the Mediterranean to Europe. The chapter is published in the volume Hope and Uncertainty in Contemporary African Migration (Kleist and Thorsen eds., 2017, Routledge).
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This introduction sets the stage for the volume Hope and Uncertainty in Contemporary African Migration (Kleist and Thorsen eds., 2017, Routledge). It discusses hope as an analytical prism through which to examine African migration and... more
This introduction sets the stage for the volume Hope and Uncertainty in Contemporary African Migration (Kleist and Thorsen eds., 2017, Routledge). It discusses hope as an analytical prism through which to examine African migration and (im)mobilities in a context of stratified globalization, inequality and restrictive mobility regimes. While images and visions of the good life elsewhere are circulated at the global level, the vast majority of Africans are excluded from the circuits of legal international migration beyond their home region. Hope, characterized by simultaneous potentiality and uncertainty, lends itself to analysis of how and if people keep on having faith in migration as a way of coping with uncertainty and difficult life situations.
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This chapter investigates how states aim to channel and promote migration for development with Ghana as a case study. Since 2001, the Ghanaian state has initiated a range of migration-development initiatives but most of them have not been... more
This chapter investigates how states aim to channel and promote migration for development with Ghana as a case study. Since 2001, the Ghanaian state has initiated a range of migration-development initiatives but most of them have not been implemented. I suggest that rather than being superfluous, they are attempts to symbolically include international migrants in the nation and to constitute them as a patriotic and governable population. They thereby also function as a policy spectacle where the government signals that it is taking its responsibility as a migrant-sending state seriously, exercising legitimate statecraft.
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Today people from the Horn of Africa make up the largest group of African immigrants in the Nordic countries. Such demographics alone make migrants from the Horn of Africa, and their descendants, central to mapping African Diasporas in... more
Today people from the Horn of Africa make up the largest group of African immigrants in the Nordic countries. Such demographics alone make migrants from the Horn of Africa, and their descendants, central to mapping African Diasporas in Nordic societies. In comparing African Diasporas from the Horn in Northern Europe with the more longstanding transatlantic African Diasporas some continuities are to be expected. Most significantly, the situation of being racialized by society. Yet, the Horn of Africa was never directly implicated by the ...
Migrants who return involuntarily and empty handed from violent conflict or through deportation often face huge challenges in re-establishing their lives in their countries of origin. The local reception of returnees and their personal... more
Migrants who return involuntarily and empty handed from violent conflict or through deportation often face huge challenges in re-establishing their lives in their countries of origin. The local reception of returnees and their personal resources are pertinent aspects of reintegration processes.
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This volume examines the relationship between hope, mobility, and immobility in African migration. Through case studies set within and beyond the continent, it demonstrates that hope offers a unique prism for analyzing the social... more
This volume examines the relationship between hope, mobility, and immobility in African migration. Through case studies set within and beyond the continent, it demonstrates that hope offers a unique prism for analyzing the social imaginaries and aspirations which underpin migration in situations of uncertainty, deepening inequality, and delimited access to global circuits of legal mobility.
The volume takes departure in a mobility paradox that characterizes contemporary migration. Whereas people all over the world are exposed to widening sets of meaning of the good life elsewhere, an increasing number of people in the Global South have little or no access to authorized modes of international migration. This book examines how African migrants respond to this situation. Focusing on hope, it explores migrants’ temporal and spatial horizons of expectation and possibility and how these horizons link to mobility practices. Such analysis is pertinent as precarious life conditions and increasingly restrictive regimes of mobility characterize the lives of many Africans, while migration continues to constitute important livelihood strategies and to be seen as pathways of improvement. Whereas involuntary immobility is one consequence, another is the emergence and consolidation of new destinations emerging in the Global South. The volume examines this development through empirically grounded and theoretically rich case studies in migrants’ countries of origin, zones of transit, and in new and established destinations in Europe, North America, the Middle East, Latin America and China. It thereby offers an original perspective on linkages between migration, hope, and immobility, ranging from migration aspirations to return.
The volume takes departure in a mobility paradox that characterizes contemporary migration. Whereas people all over the world are exposed to widening sets of meaning of the good life elsewhere, an increasing number of people in the Global South have little or no access to authorized modes of international migration. This book examines how African migrants respond to this situation. Focusing on hope, it explores migrants’ temporal and spatial horizons of expectation and possibility and how these horizons link to mobility practices. Such analysis is pertinent as precarious life conditions and increasingly restrictive regimes of mobility characterize the lives of many Africans, while migration continues to constitute important livelihood strategies and to be seen as pathways of improvement. Whereas involuntary immobility is one consequence, another is the emergence and consolidation of new destinations emerging in the Global South. The volume examines this development through empirically grounded and theoretically rich case studies in migrants’ countries of origin, zones of transit, and in new and established destinations in Europe, North America, the Middle East, Latin America and China. It thereby offers an original perspective on linkages between migration, hope, and immobility, ranging from migration aspirations to return.
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This volume examines the relationship between hope, mobility, and immobility in African migration. Through case studies set within and beyond the continent, it demonstrates that hope offers a unique prism for analyzing the social... more
This volume examines the relationship between hope, mobility, and immobility in African migration. Through case studies set within and beyond the continent, it demonstrates that hope offers a unique prism for analyzing the social imaginaries and aspirations which underpin migration in situations of uncertainty, deepening inequality, and delimited access to global circuits of legal mobility.