Under-Valorization of Tragedies at the Borders of Europe: African Migrant Youth and the Politicization of Biological Pigmentation

Abstract

As an emerging trend, young adults are crossing transnational borders as independent migrants. In this paper we use data collected with Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis, IPA in a qualitative field study conducted in 2013 in the Republic of Malta to examine the persistent restrictions imposed on African migrant youth at European borders. The analysis employs anti-racist and anticolonial theories to accentuate the border dynamics and EU policy imperatives that have driven migrant African youth into more hazardous measures to reach their destination. This paper becomes timely as the attention of international community is in the recent times drawn to a pervasive trend in transnational migration we have been grappling with for some time. Fed by the internal displacement of peoples in the Middle-East, Asia, and particularly the ongoing war in Syria, large number of migrants are ferrying across Mediterranean Sea to the borders of Europe. Before now, a majority of the casualties of the Africa-Europe migration are men, women, and children-dark-skinned Africans-whose lifeless bodies continued to wash up on the European coasts with none batting an eyelid. The questions that emerge are: what changed? We argue that politicization of biological pigmentation happens at the spaces of transnational border representation in which racialized African youth migrants are unfairly restricted. We conclude by proffering non-discriminatory approaches for managing the 21st century youth migration.