Postcolonial African Migration to the West as a Desire for Recognition

Discussant

Sara De Simone, University of Trento

Chair

Ester Gallo, University of Trento

Abstract 

Postcolonial African migration to the West is not only a spatial movement in search of material and physical security but also an expression of the mimetic desire for being by imitating the West or “whitening” oneself against the background of the dehumanizing historical legacies of slavery, colonialism, and Western dominance. It is a flight from oneself, from perceived inadequacies. To migrate to the West is an expression of the desire for being, not through detachment from the evil former colonizer and exploiter but rather through adoration and imitation of its superior, admirable, and desirable lifestyle, beauty ideals, and soft and hard power, ideally by living in the West. The model (the West) builds ubiquitous anti-migrant physical and virtual fences, which the imitator tries to overcome. The more the model re-strengthens these fences, the more the imitator tries to scale them. The Western anti-migrant fences are the meeting point of the model’s perceived exclusive superiority on one hand and a passionate desire and struggle of the colonized for recognition through imitation of the West on the other. This book argues that the postcolonial African migration to the West will continue even in the absence of poverty, conflicts, and climate change because it is also about the mimetic desire for being.

Bio

Belachew Gebrewold is a professor of International Relations and the Head of Department and Studies of Social Work and Social Policy at MCI, Innsbruck, Austria. His main research areas are European-African relations, African politics and conflicts, and migration. His publications include various peer-reviewed articles, monographs and edited volumes such as Africa and Fortress Europe, Ashgate 2008; Anatomy of Violence, Ashgate 2009; Global Security Triangle, Routledge 2013; Understanding Migrant Decisions, Routledge, 2018; Human Trafficking and Exploitation, Routledge, 2019. Postcolonial African Migration to the West, Palgrave Macmillan, 2024.  He was also a member of the steering committee for the preparation of the UN Global Compact for Regular, Safe and Orderly Migration preparatory process in 2017, and a Member of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa Informal Advisory Group on Migration, 2017. Moreover, he was a member of the Migration Council of the Austrian Ministry of Internal Affairs from 2014 until 2017.