The Adventure: Violent Borders, Illegal Migration, and the Uncertain Quest for Life in Morocco - Hardcover

by Sébastien Bachelet (Author)

This ethnographic exploration of irregular migration from Western and Central Africa in Morocco deconstructs dehumanising narratives of a "migration crisis" and a "sub-Saharan problem" in politics of migration. The book provides an original focus on how migrants understood and experienced their entrapped mobility. The emic notion of "the adventure" at the heart of this study sheds light on a transformative, epic quest to carve out a better life and future. The book traces how young men from Western and Central Africa sought to assert themselves as agents of their own destinies, despite uncertain, illegalising processes. In steering away from aesthetics of despair and fearmongering narratives, the book brings new insights into inter-disciplinary debates (e.g. illegality, uncertainty, immobility, violence, suffering, transit, etc.). Such focus is essential to draw out the complexity and existential depth of (irregular) migrants' lives, journeys, and stories.

Back Jacket

A compelling and urgent book about life at the borders of Europe, unpacking with ethnographic care the violence and defiance of illegalised journeys.
Alice Elliot, author of The Outside: Migration as Life in Morocco

A deft and deeply empathetic ethnographic portrait of the struggles of precarious migrants in the marginal neighbourhoods of the Moroccan capital.
Ruben Andersson, University of Oxford

Beautifully draws out the complexity and existential depth of these young men's stories, thereby moving beyond simplistic portrayals of illegal migrants as either victims or signifiers of crisis.
Annika Lems, Australian National University

This ethnographic study examines the hopes, imaginaries, and everyday lives of young male migrants from Western and Central Africa who find themselves 'stuck' in Morocco. The book deepens and humanises understandings of sub-Saharan migration, exploring migrants' conceptualisation of 'the adventure' as an epic quest to carve out a better life and future in the face of the violent, transnational politics of migration. The adventure sheds light on the moral, gendered, affective, social, and political aspects of migrants' own experiences and representations of their journeys and struggles. Steering away from aesthetics of despair, victimhood, and criminality, the book focuses on young men's efforts to face up to bordering practices to retain control over their lives and mobility.

The adventure sheds a crucial light on migrants' own experiences and understandings of their entrapped mobility in Douar Hajja and Ma?did, two peripheral neighbourhoods of the Moroccan capital Rabat. The adventure is a quest for 'une vie plus supportable' (a life more bearable), a hopeful and risky journey to become the person one aspires to be, to reach a place where one's dignity and rights might be respected.

Author Biography

Sébastien Bachelet is a Lecturer in Social Anthropology at the University of Manchester