Imagined Europe

As presented in Chapter 1, Europe is a widespread destination for Senegalese migrants.

Some of my interlocutors, like Ndiaga and Amari, lived there before, while others like Moussa and Fallou saw it as a possibility before going to Argentina. Moreover, every participant manifested to have a friend or a relative living there. Some talked about uncles who migrated during the ’80s and the ’90s. Some others told me about friends that migrated more recently from 2006 onwards. Images, videos, narratives, news, rumours and ideas about European countries are often present in Senegalese people’s daily life, being part of their imaginaries about migration. Considering these facts, I decided to inquire about my interlocutors’

imaginaries of Europe. What do they hear about it? How do they imagine it there? Would they like to ‘try their luck’ overseas? How is their lived experience of having been in Europe informing their imaginaries?

My participants in this section sounded a lot more informed about what to expect in ‘the old continent’ than when they were about to go to Argentina and implied that “Europe is no longer the only El Dorado” (De Clerck, 2015:286; emphasis in original). This way, imaginaries about

Europe that I presented here are a way of knowing, acquired partly by the fact of having migrated before.

My interlocutors focused almost exclusively on negative aspects of Europe, such as discrimination, dangers and suffering of those who live there without a working permit. The exceptions were Ahmadou, who stated that his “destiny is in Europe” because he is sure he can make more money over there; and Ndiaga, who is well aware of the difficulties in Spain, however he would be willing to go back due to economic reasons.

Amari explained that “At least in Argentina you can take your products out, you can sell on the street, you earn little money, but live quietly. But not in Europe. I suffered a lot for two months in Europe”. Fallou, who once left Senegal without his parents’ permission to go to Morocco, and there find a way to reach Spain, is no longer aspiring to go to Europe, he said that “I just wanted to go to Europe to work ... and now I have it here, so I don't need to go anywhere else”.

Alternatively, Omaro, who opened his sewing atelier, made it clear that he is not currently interested in going to Europe, by saying “I don’t think of Europe, Europe, Europe, now I’m here, I’m doing all right here”. Going there without EU passports does not seem like an option for most of them. Moreover, as long as they imagine they are fulfilling the migratory project, their bodies and mind will remain where they are. However, they always imagine the day of going back to Senegal for good.

Working Conditions

Considering that most of my participants imagined that they would have different jobs than the ones they are forced to do in Argentina, I wanted to know if their imaginations about migration remain like before departure. I requested more information from Moussa about his thoughts on Senegalese living in Europe. He said that the ones who migrated more than ten years ago are doing well, they have steady jobs and good salaries, but the ones who did it recently are doing just as he is or even worse. I asked him, how do you know? He replied, "Because now I'm living things! Before I didn't know anything, but now I really know what they are going through, that's the difference". He continued by telling me that some of his friends in Europe told him about their situation, "You know, in Spain, they have a cordoncito [lace or string], which they put around things when the federals come, they run, they follow them (...) if they take, if they confiscate your things, you may have problems with documents, something like that”. He described the precarious working conditions of Senegalese street vendors in Europe.

The experience of migrating has informed him about Senegalese migration in general.

Moreover, becoming a migrant has given him access to certain information about conditions abroad that he was unaware of before. Furthermore, his imagination, now informed by migration experiences, is crucial in understanding further migration decisions.

Ibrahim also mentioned the cordoncito as a practice of his fellow nationals in Europe. He illustrated the situation in Europe by taking the following photo. When I asked him for the meaning of the image, he explained the following:

I imagine that vendedor ambulante like the way we do it here they do not do it in Europe. Yes, there are vendors but they can't put it on the sidewalk. You have to have a bag, you have to walk, but you will not be able to put it on the sidewalk. I also imagine that in Europe you cannot sell brands without permission. That's why I took this photo.

Photo taken by Ibrahim

Ibrahim’s image depicts his own fixed spots on a centric street of La Plata. He actually has three display sectors, one for the hats (the one in the picture), one for the sunglasses and one

table for necklaces, rings, bracelets and other stuff. Ibrahim, as most of his peers, sets his spot and he does not move from there unless there are conflicts with local authorities. It could be weeks, or even months without conflicts. Some other times clashes, and persecution would occur on a daily basis. His photo shows what Europe does not look like to him. Ibrahim explained to me the European situation by showing me the Argentinian one. According to my participant, people in Europe cannot display their selling products as quietly as he does. In his opinion, in Europe they are all ambulantes and do not have the possibility to have a fixed spot as he has. He added that "In Europe, I imagine that if they catch you with so many brands like this [pointing at the picture] they will take you to your country, or you will have problems with your document". Ibrahim told me that he heard about this from other migrants living in La Plata. In fact, something similar happened to Ndiaga in Spain. He got caught selling unauthorised DVDs and got deported to Senegal.

Police

In Chapter 2, I described how Thierno would watch his friends’ videos about Brazilian paradisiac beaches and wished to migrate. The videos that he watches ‘now’ are quite the opposite. Thierno told me that he often watches posts about police persecutions of Senegalese people in Europe. He described a video he saw on Facebook of a Senegalese man chased by Italian police. The African man was so scared and so exhausted from running that he collapsed and passed away. He concluded by saying that that is how migrants live in Europe and something like that would never happen in Argentina.

The following is an example of how imagination about Europe changed due to having lived there. When I asked Ndiaga to depict Europe with a picture, he sent me an image on WhatsApp with explanatory audio (see next photo). The photo shows three female police officers from the Bonaerense²⁹ chatting while standing outside a shop. The location is exactly in front of Ndiagas’ selling point. He must have been no further than five meters when he took the picture, making it impossible for them not to see him and his selling stuff. Because of the angle of the photo, I infer that he was sitting on the bench that he often sits on when he is not standing next to his selling point. The body posture of the three does not indicate any sign of tension, or being defensive. On the contrary, the woman with her hand in her pocket and a crossed leg gives a sense of relaxation. The situation that Ndiaga imagined with this picture was quite the

29 Bonaerense refers to the province of Buenos Aire

opposite to this scenario. He explained that these three officers remind him of the three different kinds of Spanish police (see title of the photo), “every time I saw them, I had to hide to avoid being asked about my papers, and thus avoid deportation (...) that’s how we lived in Spain”. Ndiaga continued saying that unlike in Argentina, any kind of police that would see people selling in the streets of Spain, would confiscate their items and further inquire on the migratory situation, often resulting in detentions and deportations. This description of Europe drastically contrasts against what Ndiaga narrated about the first time he went to Spain³⁰.

Sorrows

For some of my interlocutors Europe had become a place of loss and sadness in their thoughts. When I asked Thierno to show me a picture that he relates to Europe he pointed at his phone, where he had a photo of an urban landscape covered by snow. He continued saying that when he sees the snow, he gets sad, but he reminds himself to be faithful and positive. I asked him to further develop his explanation. The snow, in Thierno’s imagination, is directly linked to Europe, and the latter to sadness. Harper (2002) recalls photographs' specific form of representation in order to claim that photo-elicitation evokes a different kind of information than traditional interviews do, pictures can bring back memories and trigger feelings, leading to new knowledge and bringing an unspoken dimension of experience (Schwartz, 1992; Pink, 2013). Thierno

30 In Chapter 2 Ndiaga commented that he imagined that he would work harvesting oranges in Spain. He even calculated how much money he could bring back to Senegal by working in the fields.

explained to me how Senegalese people cross the sea by boat to arrive at Spanish shores. He referred to the phenomena of “Barça ou Barsakh³¹”, a Wolof saying that gained attention from 2006 onwards, which Thierno translated as “Barcelona or death”. He basically told me that either you arrive in Spain, or you die in the sea. Some of his friends were victims of such fatalities, he elaborated the following:

When I think about all that, it reminds me of my friends that I lost and I will never see again, because they died at sea, to travel, and some arrived and suffered a lot too, because they did not have a boy who came to look for them, or anything.

The sorrows come not only by remembering the ones who passed away, but also the ones who actually arrived and didn’t find ‘El Dorado’. On the contrary, Thierno narrated about how today’s migration to Europe is really hard according to his friends.

My findings are in line with recent research on shifting perceptions about Europe as ‘El Dorado’ (De Clerck, 2015; Uberti, Riccio, 2017), and adds on the studies of imaginations as collective representations historically, locally and globally constructed and interconnected through transnational spaces, by showing how the act of migrating contributed on shaping people’s ideas about Europe. In other words, I showed that imaginations about Europe are inscribed in a shifting tendency, and the ways in which the act of migrating informs those representations. As Uberti & Riccio argues for the ones left behind in Senegal,

The act of migrating changes the social context and circumstances in which the decision was made, providing migrant aspirations with new sources of inspiration as a result of the incorporation of different lifestyles, tastes and understandings of migration (2017:345).

I state here that the same idea can be applied to the ones who migrate. Not only the ones who observe their fellow nationals get all sorts of stimulus from the ones who travel. Migration, as suggested in Chapter 2, entitles them to access information that somehow was concealed to them, or this information was not even important at that time.

31 For further discussion of the meanings of this phrase, consult Degli Uberti, 2014.