| 摘要 | How can we understand that African migrants set out for – sometimes dangerous – journeys when Western and African governments alike tell them to stay home? The edited volume Hope and uncertainty in contemporary African migration approaches this question from a migrant perspective, examining the relationship between hope, mobility, and immobility in African migration.
Through nine case studies set within and beyond the continent – from neighbouring countries to Europe, China and Argentina – the chapters range from analysis of migration aspirations, life in new or established destinations to migrants stuck in transit zones and after deportation. Employing hope as an analytical lens, it offers novel perspectives on the social imaginaries and aspirations which underpin migration in situations of uncertainty, deepening inequality, and delimited access to global circuits of legal mobility.
Hope and uncertainty in contemporary African migration is edited by Nauja Kleist, DIIS, and Dorte Thorsen, University of Sussex, with contributions from eight other scholars with backgrounds in anthropology, sociology and geography. It is published by Routledge as part of the Studies in Anthropology series (2016) and has recently come out in a paperback version. The book is one of the outputs from the FKK-funded research program ‘New Geographies of Hope and Despair’.
'This collection of chapters provides invaluable insights … [It] will be vastly informative for scholars working in contexts of African migration, as a means to contextualize contemporary trajectories through how they are motivated by the hope to surmount inequalities. The collection of papers exemplifies the ways that hope creates pathways that are both socially resonant and institutionally configured … The framework, thus, has great potential for application to many other migration contexts shaped by "hope"'
Lauren B. Wagner, Anthropological Quarterly
'Through the concept of hope and uncertainty, the book offers a new conceptual framework […] A particular strength of this book is its focus on migrants' perspectives on migration through the analysis of detailed, ethnographic research data from a range of different contexts and actors. […] This volume demonstrates that such a lens offers novel answers to current debates on if and how mobility and settlement should be managed or understood.'
Inka Stock, Ethnic and Migration Studies
'This book is a thought-provoking intervention at a time in the world when the mobility and migration of Africans is increasingly referenced and politicized as a problem … In all [the] varied, insightful, chapters, the fruitful potential of hope as an analytical concept comes to the fore. This book comes highly recommended as a valuable approach for unpacking the complexity of contemporary migration.'
Nalubwembe Binaisa, Migration and Society
'By focusing on hope as an analytical lens, this book offers a fresh perspective on migration from West Africa. Why do people embark on migration in spite of the risk of deadly dangers on the way to Europe? Based on thorough ethnography the studies collected in this edited volume show that hope is not naïve optimism but a way of coping with perilous situations, cognizant of risks and uncertainty.'
Martin Sökefeld, University of Munich, Germany
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