Paper short abstract:

Drawing on a rich corpus of some fifty life stories, the main aim of this paper is to examine perceptions and representations of irregular migration in Senegal in particular, and in African countries in general.

Paper long abstract:

In today's globalized world, where the movement of goods and people is both a marker and a constant of our times, the issue of migration is analyzed from a number of different angles. However, a review of the numerous works on migration dynamics in Senegal shows that few refer to and focus on the perceptions and representations of irregular migration in Senegal in particular, and in African countries in general. Drawing on a rich corpus of some fifty life stories, the main aim of this paper is to deconstruct, through an analysis of perceptions and representations of irregular migration, the negative, miserablist and centrifugal discourse of European countries on the issue of so-called irregular migration. To test the needs of this research, we favored a socio-anthropological approach that "aims to be as close as possible to the subjects' natural situations - daily life, conversations, routines - in a situation of prolonged interaction between the researcher in person and local populations, in order to produce in situ, contextualized, transversal knowledge, aiming to account for the actor's point of view, ordinary representations, customary practices and their indigenous meanings." (De Sardan, 2008: 41). Our methodology is essentially qualitative, involving life stories and informal discussions.