Paper short abstract:

Migration campaigns are implemented in West Africa to discourage youth from migrating irregularly to Europe. Using ethnographic data, this article examines how Senegalese youth react to campaign sedentary discourse to reveal their imaginaries of im/mobility and their sense of social justice.

Paper long abstract:

The EU and its member states invest in migration information campaigns to stop irregular migration from West African countries. These campaigns spread images and messages showing the suffering of migrating irregularly with the aim to immobilize so-called ‘potential migrants’ in their country of origin. As a tool of migration management, campaigns contribute to contain the mobility of Africans and to enforce border control. While studies have looked at the many actors who implement campaigns, little attention has been given to campaign receivers. Drawing on 15 months of ethnographic fieldwork in Senegal, this article investigates how Senegalese youth, targeted as campaign audience, react to campaign messages and how these reactions reveal their imaginaries of im/mobility. We find that youth in Senegal are aware of being labelled by campaigns as ‘unwanted migrants’, yet they do not feel discouraged to abandon their migration aspirations after attending campaign events. At the same time, they apparently support the same sedentarist discourse of campaigns. Yet, their discourse does not mean to endorse a European securitization of migration, rather it intends to criticize structural constraints that make them socially immobile in Senegal. Their reactions to campaigns not only show claims for their right to move, but also claims for the right to stay put, revealing their imaginaries of (im)mobility justice and imaginaries of a different future they wish for themselves.