Migrants from Senegal: “Nothing works in this country”

The number of people from West Africa heading to Europe has increased significantly. They not only want to escape poverty, but also the feeling of lack of prospects.

24-year-old Cheikh Ndao just wants to leave. Although the young mechanic has work, nothing can stop him in Senegal: “I have my job, I work every day, but nothing works,” he says. “Nothing works in this country.” His declared goal is Europe. And he already knows how to get there: by boat. From the young Senegalese’s point of view, there is no other way out: “The only option is to go there illegally. Because I can’t afford the legal route, the plane.”

This makes the young man a very typical case for his generation. At least that’s how migration researcher Professor Aly Tandian from the University of Gaston Berger in Saint Louis in northern Senegal sees it. It is naive, says Tandian, to believe that most people leave their country in search of work.

Poverty is by no means the only reason

The matter is much more complicated, the reasons are more complex: “Research shows us that those who emigrate are not as poor as you think,” explains Tandian. “They are people who work. But who work for others so that the profits do not belong to them. Or they are people who are forced to do multiple jobs.”

Tandian speaks of the so-called “working poor”. In fact, statistics show that in Africa the poorest of the poor have neither the strength nor the means to undertake a long, often life-threatening journey – let alone pay smugglers.

So it’s mainly people who have at least limited resources who set out. The data also shows that the number of migrants leaving their homes within Africa is many times higher than the number of those heading to Europe in the often tiny wooden fishing boats.

The number of migrants is increasing rapidly

Nevertheless, 13,000 people arrived on the Canary Islands via the so-called North Atlantic route in the first three months of this year, five times as many people as in the previous year. Many of them from Senegal.

Most are driven by desperation – or with the dream of a better future in their heads, says migration expert Tandian: “With all the fantasies, the heroization of migration and the glorification of travel for migrants, people believe that it is possible to find themselves to realize once you’re gone.”

When Tandian speaks of “fantasies” and “glorification,” he is pointing to a phenomenon in social media that has been giving Europeans a headache for years: Young migrants and North African influencers have repeatedly filmed themselves in TikTok photos and videos , smiling and perfectly made up, on their risky journeys in small boats across the Mediterranean.

They posed relaxed for their smartphone cameras and acted as if it was a harmless joy ride with a glorious future waiting beyond the horizon. And not about a journey that kills thousands every year.

Many of the films that appeared years ago have now been deleted. But that doesn’t solve the problem. And in West Africa too, these posts, often shared hundreds of thousands of times, are probably still haunting the minds of many a young person.

Will the new government change anything?

As far as the youth in Senegal are concerned, their hopefuls took over the reins of government at the beginning of April: “I often tell the youth: the solution is not to get on boats.” The politician Ousmane Sonko addressed his young compatriots with these words in 2019. Sonko is almost revered like a messiah, especially among young Senegalese people – and has been prime minister for a few weeks after his party colleague Diyomaye Faye won the presidential election by a landslide.

You now have the chance to make a difference. The main tasks they have set for themselves are: creating jobs; to improve the lot of the rural population and fishermen; curb inflation.

“Migration is not yet on our politicians’ agenda,” criticizes analyst Tandian. The newly elected new government in Senegal, which has been so celebrated by many young people, now has the opportunity to change that. The big question is whether she will.

24-year-old Cheikh Ndao doesn’t want to wait for the answer. He is prepared to risk his life and leave Senegal by boat for Europe.