Caught in Europe’s net: ecological destruction and Senegalese migration to Spain

Abstract

Since the beginning of the 21st century, Europe has seen a substantial increase in undocumented economic migration from West Africa. Dominant public discourse on this migration wave fails to identify its underlying drivers. This article analyses contemporary migration within the structure of modern imperialism, demonstrating how European extraction of wealth and resources from West Africa fosters migration. Imperial expropriation is made concrete through a case study of Senegalese fishers now living in Badalona, Spain. Drawing on their life histories and situating their trajectories within the broader context of Senegalese economic history, this article argues that they were pushed to migrate largely due to industrial fishing fleets draining West African marine life. In Spain, a regime of illegality has coerced these Senegalese fishers into highly exploitative sectors, to the tremendous benefit of Spanish capital. Their ceaseless struggle to work under such violent conditions can only be explained by the need to sustain their impoverished families in Senegal.