Irregular Migration as an Inevitable Way of Life? Participant-Observation from Europe

Abstract

In the last decades, unabated cross-Mediterranean refugee flows from Africa have geometrically expanded, despite the closure of borders and the introduction of new regulations. The number of Africans waiting in Libyan slave camps, with determination to cross the Mediterranean Sea, understandably demonstrates the depressing reality in their home countries. The state of affairs in homeland countries that compels people to expose themselves to precarious migration journeys deserves academic interrogation. This article briefly explores the contextual conditions that inspire this form of migration, mainly from Africa to Europe and draws on sociological literature about irregular migration. This article also includes accounts from formal and informal interactions with African migrants. It concludes that scrambling for greener pastures in Europe could be drastically reduced if anti-poverty policies are established in Africa.