Hope and uncertainty in contemporary African migration

Hope and uncertainty in contemporary African migration Book launch Friday 10 March 2017 Background Access to safe and legal migration has become one of the key axes of inequality today. While images of the good life are circulated globally in the media and through social networks, the vast majority of people in Africa are excluded from legal long-distance migration, due to restrictive migration policies and border control. The new book Hope and Uncertainty in Contemporary African Migration explores what this means in situations where migration constitutes an established livelihood and is perceived as a pathway to a better life. Through a theoretical introduction and nine case studies, set within and outside the African continent, the volume explores migration aspirations prior to actual journeys, life in new or established destinations, and migrants stuck in transit zones and after deportation. Hope and Uncertainty in Contemporary African Migration thereby adds a new perspective on the role of social imaginaries in African migration in a time characterized by inequality, protracted crisis and delimited access to legal migration. At the book launch, we will present the main conceptual insights and four case studies from the book, set in respectively Cape Verde, China, Argentina and Niger. Speakers Jørgen Carling, Research Professor, PRIO Heike Drotbohm, Professor, Heisenberg Chair of Anthropology, African Diaspora and Transnationalism, Department of Anthropology and African Studies, University of Mainz Heidi Østbø Haugen, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Department of Sociology and Human Geography, University of Oslo Nauja Kleist, Senior Researcher, DIIS Hans Lucht, Senior Researcher, DIIS Ida Vammen, PhD Candidate, department of anthropology, University of Copenhagen and DIIS