Understanding Migrant Decisions
This volume creates a deeper understanding of the root causes and the reasons for migration contributing to the current refugee crisis. It is a must read for all who want to learn more about one of the biggest challenges humanity faces as a result of deteriorating living conditions for so many.
Henning Melber, Dag Hammarskjld Foundation, Sweden
Examining how changing conditions in the Mediterranean Region have affected the decisions of those considering migrating from Sub-Saharan Africa to or through the Region, this book represents an important and overdue contribution to international policy-making and academic discourse. In current discussions relating to this migration phenomenon, the complexity of individual decision-making is often left unacknowledged, so that subsequent policy responses draw upon simplified models. In this volume, individual decision-making takes central stage by bringing together chapters that demonstrate very different types of decision-making frameworks. In this project, it is highlighted that people move for a variety of reasons such as being affected by conflict and insecurity, by economic pressures, and by desire for other forms of enrichment. Throughout, the books contributors find that events in the Mediterranean cannot be considered alone in understanding migration decision-making from Sub-Saharan Africa, but as part of an increasingly complicated global system not encompassed by one simplified theory or by looking at one regional context in isolation. Knowing why individual people are moving and how they decide upon which routes to take can help to ensure policy that promotes safer travel options, or makes genuine alternatives to migration available.
Belachew Gebrewold is Professor of International Relations and head of the department of Social Work and Social Policy at Management Center Innsbruck, an Entrepreneurial School. His research areas are international security, conflicts and migration.
Tendayi Bloom co-edited this book as Research Fellow at the United Nations University Institute on Globalization, Culture and Mobility in Barcelona, Spain. She is currently a Postdoctoral Associate in Yale Universitys Global Justice Program, exploring aspects of noncitizenship, statelessness, migration and justice.
Cover Image: R.M., Barceloneta, Barcelona, 2015, Tatiana Diniz Abud
R.M. has been living in Spain for four years now and he works in a restaurant. When I told him that I wanted to take pictures for this project at the beach he was really excited and actually he was the one who took me to this spot in Barceloneta. He told me that when he needs peace he comes to this pier just to sit down and look at the sea. He started trying to get his papers in order a while back but was denied because he has two fines for being undocumented. Hes going to pay the fines and start the process again. He wanted his story to be told.
Understanding Migrant
Decisions
From Sub-Saharan Africa to the
Mediterranean Region
Edited by Belachew Gebrewold and
Tendayi Bloom
First published 2016
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
2016 selection and editorial matter, Tendayi Bloom and Belachew Gebrewold; individual chapters, the contributors
The right of Tendayi Bloom and Belachew Gebrewold to be identified as the authors of the editorial material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
A catalog record for this book has been requested.
ISBN: 978-1-4724-8276-1 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-3155-4915-6 (ebk)
Typeset in Baskerville
by Swales & Willis Ltd, Exeter, Devon, UK
This book acknowledges first and foremost those who migrate in extremis from the Sub-Saharan Region to and through the Mediterranean and suffer unacceptable hardships en route. There is a risk that work in this field could become voyeuristic discussion of misfortune. That is not our intention. This book celebrates migrant decision-makers and aims to contribute to bringing the discussion of how individuals make migration decisions into policy-making and thereby contribute to more humane and indeed effective policy in this area.
The editors would like to thank each of the projects contributors. Every person involved has been extremely dedicated. This includes fitting childbirth around chapter completion, crossing international borders to get better internet, managing broken bones, ill health, and all manner of other impediments, and all without financial support or reward. The book was made possible by everyones commitment, good spirit, flexibility and team work. It has been wonderful to work with people so dedicated to the project and to the widening of questioning and understanding which hopefully comes across in the book. Part of this is also seen in the cover image, and the editors would like to thank the generosity of Tatiana Diniz Abud, Olga Amaya, Silvia Gimnez and Raihan Mulla. They created this image especially for the book and did so within tight time constraints.
The first inkling of an idea for this project emerged from conversations at the World Social Forum for Migrations in Quezon City in the Philippines in 2012, and the project was developed within the Research Programme on Sociocultural Impacts of the Global Economic Crisis on Migration at the United Nations University Institute on Globalization, Culture and Mobility (UNU-GCM) in Barcelona, Spain.
Particular thanks go to several UNU-GCM staff members. ngels Fabregues and Anna Franzil facilitated the gathering of contributors to discuss the project in Barcelona in 2014. Valeria Bello introduced the editors to each other and created the UNU Migration Network, which brought in four of the contributors. Megha Amrith, Alex Lazarowicz, Parvati Nair and Janina Pescinski supported the project in different ways. Particular acknowledgement must also go to those who gave their time to discuss our work at the UNU-GCM Conference on Statelessness and Transcontinental Migration in Barcelona in 2014.
All of us involved in this book also thank most warmly those at the publishing house whose belief in the project and work have been crucial to ensuring its successful completion. In particular, we would like to thank those with whom we have worked directly: Tamsin Ballard, Amanda Buxton, Kirstin Howgate, Brenda Sharp and Amy Thomas, as well as all those involved in the formatting and indexing of the final book project.
Sophie Ramlv Barclay is currently a political anthropology student at Copenhagen University. She holds an MA in Anthropology from the University of Edinburgh and an MA in Political Science from the University of Pompeu Fabra. Previously she has worked in the Council of Europe with policy-making and has extensive experience advocating and disseminating the personal lived experiences of various migrant groups across Europe through enthnography, photography, film and theatre.
