Talkin' about migration. Some ethnographic notes on the ambivalent representation of migrants in contemporary Senegal

This article discusses the ambivalent representation of migrants in one of the important West African emigration country: Senegal. Senegalese discourse emerging from popular culture and from the subjective constructions made by kin, friends and neighbours, is replete with the celebration of migrants as symbols of contemporary society, because of their solidarity and their efforts in coping with being far from home for the well being of their families. On the other hand, and in a minor extent, there exist also negative opinions regarding modou modou, as migrants are often called, seen as people able to trick and to become rich only in a fraudulent manner. Towards Europe as migration context ambivalent constructs abound, too. Although it is seen as an “El Dorado”, a critical view based on a historical consciousness is held. Many informants insist on the impossibility of stopping migratory flows and the blindness of policies of closure characterizing “Fortress Europe”.