The Big Gamble : The Migration of Eritreans to Europe

A free open access ebook is available upon publication. Learn more at "http://www.luminosoa.org". Tens of thousands of Eritreans make perilous voyages across Africa and the Mediterranean Sea every year. Why do they risk their lives to reach European countries where so many more hardships await them? By visiting family homes in Eritrea and living with refugees in camps and urban peripheries across Ethiopia, Sudan, and Italy, Milena Belloni untangles the reasons behind one of the most under-researched refugee populations today. Balancing encounters with refugees and their families, smugglers, and visa officers, The Big Gamble contributes to ongoing debates about blurred boundaries between forced and voluntary migration, the complications of transnational marriages, the social matrix of smuggling, and the role of family expectations, emotions, and values in migrants’ choices of destinations. "Every year, tens of thousands of Eritreans risk their lives making perilous voyages across Africa and the Mediterranean Sea. Why do they face such an ordeal to reach European countries where long-term prospects are often dismal? The Big Gamble is a vivid ethnography about one of the most under-researched refugee populations today and their efforts to escape chronic crisis. Author Milena Belloni visited family homes in Eritrea and lived with refugees in camps and urban peripheries across Ethiopia, Sudan and Italy to untangle the multiple reasons behind current migration from the Horn of Africa to Europe. Chronic crisis back home, limited prospects in the country of initial asylum, as well as transnational family expectations push migrants in complex journeys across countries and continents. Balancing encounters with refugees and their families, smugglers, and visa officers, The Big Gamble contributes to ongoing debates about blurred boundaries between forced and voluntary migration, the complications of transnational marriages, the social matrix of smuggling, and the role of family expectations, emotions, and values in migrants' choices of destinations. The book reveals how shared imagination and morality are critical to understanding the trajectories and the motivations of those willing to risk everything for asylum in Europe"-- Provided by publisher Why, every year, tens of thousands of people are willing to risk their lives in perilous voyages across Africa and the Mediterranean Sea? Why do they face such an ordeal to reach European countries where their long-term prospects are often dismal? The Big Gamble answers these questions through a multi-sited ethnography with refugees, their families back, smugglers and relatives in the diaspora. By visiting family homes in Eritrea, living with refugees in camps and urban peripheries across Ethiopia, Sudan and Italy, the author untangles everyday challenges as well as images, desires and feelings of young Eritreans pursuing their desired destination in a context of protracted crisis and long-term displacement. Throughout the book the author shows the importance of recognizing the space for choices in contemporary refugee movements. It argues that imagination, morality and emotion are crucial elements to understand the trajectories and the motivations of those who bet not only their resources but also their lives to seek asylum in Europe