“The Transatlantic Forum on Migration and Integration:
For a new glance at the international migrations and a real
vision on the question of reception of foreign populations (…)”
Dr. Aly Tandian is a Teacher-researcher at the Department of Sociology (University Gaston Berger of Saint-Louis, Senegal), associate member of the Center for Social Anthropology (LISST) in Toulouse and scientific collaborator with the Center of Studies on Ethnicité and Migrations (CEDEM -University of Liege, Belgium). Contact : Tandian@ugb.sn. Our Staff Reporter Kizito Makoye Caught up with him in Nuremberg, here are some of his insights about migration trend.
What is your view on current migration in Africa and the world?
Of course what makes the news of migration in Africa is the flow of boats leaving in recent years the West African coast to dock in the Canary Islands in Spain. As a sociologist, I refuse to limit myself to the simple movements of canoes, the mobility of people, etc. I think what really interests me is why Europe continues to be a dream destination for populations which are from Africa or elsewhere. If we still remember, in recent years, migration has raised many questions. It continue to influence policies in many countries. However, the phenomenon remains elusive because of ambiguities which hide behind certain concepts. If drought or political crises are reasons often cited to explain the movement of populations from South to North, many other factors come into play and often beyond the mechanistic analyses that attempt to explain the choice of migration destinations.
Indeed, previous “painful” events in the Spanish enclaves, Ceuta and Melilla, have helped to measure the determination of candidates for migration, more recently, Senegalese canoes which run aground on the Spanish coast. We are building on the intensity of the desire to seek one’s fortune in Europe.
As a sociologist, I do want to fall into categories or patterns: Caricature of Senegal, migration is at the centre of discussions. It has even become one of the few topics of discussion bringing together all segments of the local population regardless of age, sex, ethnicity, educational level or professional status. This was mainly made possible by the fact that system-level representations of local prototypes are frequently mentioned when it comes to talk about migration and other things. Travel for the majority of Senegalese is not simply synonymous with acquisition of a stable job but sometimes it symbolizes the way to begin to acquire wealth and in the eyes of his peers, social prestige.
Do you think now is the right time to re-visit issues surrounding global migration?
Yes it is now timely to reread migration, because it remains little known the real motivations of candidates for travel! Today, the desire to migrate is more pronounced in the South because of the impact of television on a large audience, such as TV5, Canal Horizon, CNN or Euronews, on people who do relive this illusion. Thus, the premise of seeking better living conditions as one of the main causes of migration is no longer negligible. It is based on the deterioration of socio-political structures and local economics, but also on non-productivity of the fishing industry, that attracts many more people who choose to migrate to improve their daily lives.
Rumour helps many young people who aspire to go to Europe, they can succeed in making their living like all those migrants who have returned to Senegal with money, cars, to build beautiful homes and organize large ceremonies. For those seeking to migrate, travel to Europe is a possible trajectory to the absolute economic success without which they will have lost their social dignity in a Senegalese society, which is more and more a society where the dominant make a lot of noise.
Thus, the watchword for these young candidates for the trip is “Barça or Barsaax” (Go to
Barcelona or die). Unfortunately many among them have failed! They had left aboard a makeshift canoe braving the sea and its waves to make a fortune in Europe, passing nights of anxiety and fear. The Spanish or European Eldorado, generally speaking, they have just glimpsed before returning to Senegal.
What measures are there to curb illegal emigration in your country?
You know, today, to try to curb illegal emigration to Europe many policies are defined.The EU has allocated a fund repatriation of 30 million euros for 2005-2006 funding flights charters’ program (Neptune) accompanied by measures to reintegrate in their countries of origin and guaranteeing fundamental rights. Senegal has launched in late 2005 Plan Back to Agriculture (Reva), but a year later, players agricultural and clandestine repatriated from Spain and North Africa showed little entrain confront this initiative.
Clearly, “Barça or Barsaax” (Go to Barcelona or die) attests to the hard candidates for migration who want to make a fortune with boats of fortune. The fences of Ceuta or Melilla and helicopter surveillance of maritime waters of Frontex they discourage all those for whom the galley of an illegal immigrant in Europe is better than to languish in a village without hope here or elsewhere. I do not think so! I truly doubt because Sunday, June 29 some 179 African illegal immigrants arrived on board a boat in the Spanish Canary Islands and among them there were 26 minors! Should we then wonder with these departures of candidates for irregular migration that the “Plan Reva”, patrols of Frontex, etc.. reveal their limits? I do not know! But I can say that policies are in the invention of formula! Each day they create new ones! We are talking aboutmigration chosen “here”, the fight against family reunification “there” or refusal regulations massive “there”! There are laying a few days in France, the Commission Mazeaud has rejected the principle of quotas, a principle that points on the lips of some politicians, unfortunately, all day!
These are not quotas that will solve the problems because they are unrealistic and are of no interest. They are not chimerical. And by the way, emphasizes Mazeaud Commission clearly that “a policy of restrictive immigration quotas would be useless real immigration work, ineffective against illegal immigration.”
In specific terms what are you proposing?
I do not say “No to a selective immigration! Yes to a concerted immigration!” but I can still say that Europe is sorting ageing each day! Between 2010 and 2030, Europe will have 25 million people less active, which will make immigration inevitable.
From my view as a sociologist, this is not to say it’s good or not to adopt or encourage migration! Again, my view is not to denounce but just designate the constitution of the phenomenon or manifestation of movement on one side with the definition of politics and the other mobilization strategies to escape!
I believe that participating in the Transatlantic Forum on Migration and Integration (TFMI) organized by the German Marshall Fund and the Robert Bosch Stiftung in Nuremberg from 9 to 13 July was useful. I tried to mingle with sociologists, journalists, members of NGOs.