Rational actors, passive and helpless victims, neither, both : EU borders and the drive to migrate in the Horn of Africa

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dc.contributor.author Nshimbi, Christopher Changwe
dc.date.accessioned 2022-10-05T10:00:29Z
dc.date.available 2022-10-05T10:00:29Z
dc.date.issued 2021
dc.description.abstract This article argues that neither borders nor the ways in which migrants see them constitute significant deterrents to the migrants’ resolve to migrate. The argument is based on an investigation of migrants en route to Europe from the Horn of Africa and the ways in which they see EU external borders and how that contributes to the decision to migrate. The article advances critiques of rational choice models of migrant decision-making that are based mainly on economic factors and contributes to theoretical explanations of why some people in the Horn of Africa migrate irregularly, despite measures enforced by state authorities to curb their movement. The article draws on a qualitative thematic analysis of personal face-to-face interviews conducted with migrants from four countries in the Horn of Africa who were in Ethiopia at the time of the research. In the interviews, there was sufficient evidence that migrants had realistic perceptions of European borders and that life in Europe might not be rosy. But this did not dampen the resolve to migrate. Solutions other than those that inhibit movement but understand, are sensitive to and include the perceptions of migrants are more likely to effectively address challenges associated with irregular migration. en_US
dc.description.department Political Sciences en_US
dc.description.sponsorship The Swiss Sub-Saharan Africa Migration Network (S-SAM), University of Neuchâtel. en_US
dc.description.uri http://www.cogitatiopress.com/ojs/index.php/socialinclusion en_US
dc.identifier.citation Nshimbi, Christopher. (2021). Rational Actors, Passive and Helpless Victims, Neither, Both: EU Borders and the Drive to Migrate in the Horn of Africa. Social Inclusion. 9. 257-267, doi : 10.17645/si.v9i1.3729. en_US
dc.identifier.issn 2183-2803(online)
dc.identifier.other 10.17645/si.v9i1.3729
dc.identifier.uri https://repository.up.ac.za/handle/2263/87515
dc.language.iso en en_US
dc.publisher Cogitatio Press en_US
dc.rights © 2021 by the author; licensee Cogitatio (Lisbon, Portugal). This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY). en_US
dc.subject Borders en_US
dc.subject Horn of Africa en_US
dc.subject Migration en_US
dc.subject Migrants’ perceptions en_US
dc.subject European Union (EU) en_US
dc.title Rational actors, passive and helpless victims, neither, both : EU borders and the drive to migrate in the Horn of Africa en_US
dc.type Article en_US


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