Paper short abstract:

The migration of Nigerian women overland to Europe is characterized by a constant shifting between subjectivity and structure. The tension between oppression and agency is reflected in the migrants' bodies that often remain their ultimate resource and capital.

Paper long abstract:

The migration of Nigerian women overland to Europe is characterized by a constant shifting between subjectivity and structure. Due to the extreme circumstances of their journey and, sometimes, also of their lives in Europe, they reach their personal and even existential limits.

(Borderline) experiences of migrants can be approached from a perspective based on the anthropology of the body. Migrants' bodies play a significant role in various phases: during their perilous journeys overland from Nigeria to Morocco, the long waiting periods in Morocco, the dangerous crossing of the Strait of Gibraltar, the arrival in Spain and, finally, on the various careers and detours of the migrants in Spain. The pregnant body as well as bodies of small children gain particular relevance on both sides of the Strait. Though the body is often the target of suffering and violence, it is also the women's ultimate resource and their capital. Hence, this perspective on the body enables to approach migrants' practices of navigating between structural constraints and individual agency. Photographs are a useful tool to illustrate issues like the body and embodiment that are fairly verbally communicable. These photos show how a number of migrants want to be portrayed whilst being in a liminal state. Here, migrants themselves have chosen background as well as postures and style. The catchwords of Suffering and Styling express the inherent ambivalence in migrants' lifeworlds: Subjected to enormous constraints and limitations, they are actors, who proceed with their journeys, who play their particular roles, and who form their bodies.