Anja Simonsen has guest-edited a special issue on Migration
Together with Luca Ciabarri, CGC researcher Anja Simonsen has guest-edited a special issue of the Journal of Eastern African Studies titled: “Fragments of Solidarity: the social worlds of African migrants moving northwards”
This special issue of the Journal of Eastern African Studies: "Fragments of Solidarity: the social worlds of African migrants moving northwards" delves into the social trajectories of youth migration from Eastern Africa to North Africa and Europe along what official documents refer to as ‘the East African migration route’. It explores the lived experiences, immediate social networks, and infrastructures of mobility that shape the migrants' journeys. By examining migration in a broader transformative sense, these studies emphasize the connection between mobility and social change: as a social force that reshapes territories, groups, economic and political structures; as a communal rather than individual trajectory.
Simonsen and Ciabarri's introductory article presents a framework for examining the migration from East Africa to North Africa and Europe. They explore the social worlds that emerge at the intersection of mobility and migrants' local, trans-local, and transnational connections, arguing that these are central elements in understanding contemporary African societies and their political dynamics. Furthermore, they call for investigations into both present and historical local understandings and conceptualizations of migration in relation to practices of solidarity, forced migration, migrant smuggling, and perceptions of mobility.