Papers by Stephanie Maher, Ph.D.
The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 2018
Drawing on 18 months of ethnographic research in Senegal, this article focuses on the sociality o... more Drawing on 18 months of ethnographic research in Senegal, this article focuses on the sociality of migrant facilitation. Although it has become relatively common in media and policy reports to suggest that irregular migrants are manipulated by greedy and unscrupulous human smugglers, this article shows how migrants in Senegal are often familiar with their handlers and are more likely to call them a friend ( ami) than a criminal. Also, most migrants do not see themselves as “smuggled,” which implies victimhood. Rather, they see themselves as making calculated choices to migrate based on a host of social factors. By exploring the relationships between handlers and migrants, this article reveals the social worlds of negotiation, assistance, and protection that feature prominently in West African migrant narratives and practices.
Migrant Smuggling Data and Research: A global review of the emerging evidence base , 2018
This chapter focuses on the state of research on contemporary migrant smuggling practices in the ... more This chapter focuses on the state of research on contemporary migrant smuggling practices in the Southern African region. After a brief introduction, which includes an examination of the concepts and context surrounding the current state of research on migrant smuggling, as well as State responses to migrant smuggling in Southern Africa, the second section provides an overview of migrant smuggling data. Following this, the third section examines the state of research on migrant smuggling, and the fourth section explores what the evidence tells about the prevalence and structure of migrant smuggling in the region. The chapter concludes by making some brief recommendations for continued research on this phenomenon.
Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 2018
Drawing on 18 months of ethnographic research in Senegal, this article focuses on the sociality o... more Drawing on 18 months of ethnographic research in Senegal, this article focuses on the sociality of migrant facilitation. Although it has become relatively common in media and policy reports to suggest that irregular migrants are manipulated by greedy and unscrupulous human smugglers, this article shows how migrants in Senegal are often familiar with their handlers and are more likely to call them a friend (ami) than a criminal. Also, most migrants do not see themselves as “smuggled,” which implies victimhood. Rather, they see themselves as making calculated choices to migrate based on a host of social factors. By exploring the relationships between handlers and migrants, this article reveals the social worlds of negotiation, assistance, and protection that feature prominently in West African migrant narratives and practices.
Contemporary discourses on migration from West Africa to Europe tend to frame migrants as victims... more Contemporary discourses on migration from West Africa to Europe tend to frame migrants as victims of syndicated trafficking cartels that truck in human desperation. As part of this narrative, migrants are increasingly portrayed as 'modern-day slaves' in need of humanitarian protection. In both media and policy circles, African migrants are commonly referred to as desperate travellers who fall prey to exploitative 'slave traders' on their clandestine journeys to Europe. And yet, such framings do not adequately account for the ways in which migration from West Africa to Europe has a long and profound history, and thus does not sufficiently correspond to histories of enslavement. Nor do such framings appreciate how contemporary movements within and outside West Africa are informed by interrelated political genealogies that tie Europe to Africa in mutually dialectic ways. Focusing on the case of Senegal, this article aims to disrupt the 'migrant as slave' narrative by looking back at the histories of regional and international mobility that continue to shape population movements out of Senegal today.
Book Reviews by Stephanie Maher, Ph.D.
Conference Papers by Stephanie Maher, Ph.D.
Blogs by Stephanie Maher, Ph.D.
Media representations are powerful. Not only do they embody the appealing veneer of journalistic ... more Media representations are powerful. Not only do they embody the appealing veneer of journalistic impartiality, which seems to objectively reflect world in unadulterated ways, but also they help to generate public opinion and thus create consensus when crafting and mobilizing particular policy responses. Such an image-policy nexus is exemplified in the hyper-mediatized phenomenon of clandestine migration out of West Africa during 2006 and 2007. While the Western route was effectively crippled by the implementation of border controls and surveillance technologies, the images we see today of boat migrants leaving North African shores bear a striking similarity to those circulated nearly a decade ago. In order to highlight the productive relationship between image and policy, this photo essay explores some of the visual and rhetorical representations of West African boat migrants that circulated widely in the European and American press during what was called a “wave” of clandestine arrivals in the Canary Islands. I briefly explore the history of clandestine boat migration from Senegal to the Canary Islands before unpacking some of the strategies that image producers used to inform broader publics about the “threat of invasion” of poor African youth on European soil. I conclude by examining some of the policies mobilized in response to the “wave” of clandestine arrivals and the contemporary phenomenon of boat migration to Europe. (Media representations are powerful. Not only do they embody the appealing veneer of journalistic impartiality, which seems to objectively reflect world in unadulterated ways, but also they help to generate public opinion and thus create consensus when crafting and mobilizing particular policy responses. Such an image-policy nexus is exemplified in the hyper-mediatized phenomenon of clandestine migration out of West Africa during 2006 and 2007. While the Western route was effectively crippled by the implementation of border controls and surveillance technologies, the images we see today of boat migrants leaving North African shores bear a striking similarity to those circulated nearly a decade ago. In order to highlight the productive relationship between image and policy, this photo essay explores some of the visual and rhetorical representations of West African boat migrants that circulated widely in the European and American press during what was called a “wave” of clandestine arrivals in the Canary Islands. I briefly explore the history of clandestine boat migration from Senegal to the Canary Islands before unpacking some of the strategies that image producers used to inform broader publics about the “threat of invasion” of poor African youth on European soil. I conclude by examining some of the policies mobilized in response to the “wave” of clandestine arrivals and the contemporary phenomenon of boat migration to Europe.
Conference Presentations by Stephanie Maher, Ph.D.
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Papers by Stephanie Maher, Ph.D.
Book Reviews by Stephanie Maher, Ph.D.
Conference Papers by Stephanie Maher, Ph.D.
Blogs by Stephanie Maher, Ph.D.
Conference Presentations by Stephanie Maher, Ph.D.