Infrastructures of Migrant (Im)mobilities in the Borderland of Burkina Faso and Niger

Abstract

Externalized “migration management” in West Africa involves different infrastructures of monitoring, control, and blockage of mobility. By taking the Kantchari/Makalondi borderland between Burkina Faso and Niger as a case, we study infrastructures that condition (im)mobility. We analyze infrastructures that both support migrant mobility and serve the European idea of keeping Africans in their place, but also analyze how these infrastructures are subverted, challenged, and used by the ones who are supposed to be immobilized by them in order to remain mobile. Hence, we develop a relational view of the infrastructure of (im)mobilities as a dynamic network of social organization, economic order, and technological integration.