Algerian routes: Emancipation, deterritorialisation and transnationalism through suitcase trade

Abstract

Based on fieldwork on the movement of Algerians in Euro‐Mediterranean cities, this article describes how new forms of migration and mobility are appearing from South to North. This is very different to media representations that focus exclusively on boat people and illegal immigrants (also known as “clandestini” in Italy or “sans papiers” in France). In Istanbul, Marseilles and other trade and marketplaces of the northern Mediterranean, the migrant worker has been replaced by the hawker, the commercial traveller, the smuggler or the long‐distance trader. The term “migration” no longer applies to what are often back and forth or circular movements, exploration of new worlds or caravan treks between older migrant settlements with occasional returns “home”, that are marked with the triple seal of emancipation, deterritorialisation and transnationalism, in excess of the postcolonial order.