Hope on the move
A month ago I started a new project which has been brewing for some time now. Working with platform food couriers over the last three years, most of whom are migrants, and many of whom are undocumented, I became increasingly concerned with migration and labour imaginaries. Namely, what hopes, dreams, and expectations do migrants have as they embark on long and perilous journeys to Europe, and how are these shaped along the way? Out of this curiosity came a new post-doc I’m undertaking at Grenoble Alpes University. A brief description on the website of Maison de la Création et de l’Innovation, where I will be hosted for the next two years. And a snippet below:
Hopes, movement, labour. Irregular migration imaginaries (MOBILISE)
It ethnographically unravels the multiple meanings, experiences and imaginations of labour and mobility. It aims to trace the migration trajectories of young West African men who experience diverse regimes of mobility, immobility and labour throughout their existential and physical movements towards Europe.
‘The field-sites for the project are France and Senegal. In France, a destination and a transition point for irregular migrants, I conduct research in Lyon and Grenoble. In Senegal, both a starting and transition point for West African migrants, I engage in research in Mbour, one of the preferred departing points to the Canary Islands. MOBILISE uses classic ethnographic methods and complements them with creative approaches. I plan to organise a series of workshops/creative labs where research participants will engage in creative activities revolving around drawing to explore imaginations and experiences of migration and labour. I have a longstanding interest in different forms of mobility, which have grown at the intersection of sociology, anthropology, human geography and urban studies. For the last years, working alongside migrant food couriers has prompted me to investigate how different mobility regimes and punitive migration policies impact labour and movement across borders. For MOBILISE, I use insights from my previous research on the gig economy to further study how precarious work is a precondition and a consequence of irregular migration.’
