Refugees from Globalization: "Clandestine" African migration to Europe in a human (rights) perspective

TY - CHAP

T1 - Refugees from Globalization

T2 - "Clandestine" African migration to Europe in a human (rights) perspective

AU - Jørholt, Eva

PY - 2019/3/1

Y1 - 2019/3/1

N2 - In recent years, African migrants drowning in the Mediterranean Sea or being rescued by Europeans in protective suits have become a staple of global news coverage. The international media, however, rarely present the migrants as individuals with personal histories and agency, but tend to portray them as a mass of anonymous ”sufferers.” A host of European films—narrative feature films as well as, especially, documentaries—have taken up African migration but always from a European perspective, and always with the migrants as exactly that: migrants, thus reducing their diverse identities to just one common label. In contrast, African films on the subject—the chapter takes a closer look at four narrative feature films from francophone West Africa—present individual Africans who *become* migrants because of a general lack of opportunities in their home countries; a lack of opportunities that is largely due to policies imposed by international organizations like the IMF and the World Bank, as well as the European Union. The films thus invite their spectators not only to empathize with African migrants, but also to look upon them as ”refugees from globalization,” and to ponder why ”the pursuit of happiness” is not considered a universal human right.

AB - In recent years, African migrants drowning in the Mediterranean Sea or being rescued by Europeans in protective suits have become a staple of global news coverage. The international media, however, rarely present the migrants as individuals with personal histories and agency, but tend to portray them as a mass of anonymous ”sufferers.” A host of European films—narrative feature films as well as, especially, documentaries—have taken up African migration but always from a European perspective, and always with the migrants as exactly that: migrants, thus reducing their diverse identities to just one common label. In contrast, African films on the subject—the chapter takes a closer look at four narrative feature films from francophone West Africa—present individual Africans who *become* migrants because of a general lack of opportunities in their home countries; a lack of opportunities that is largely due to policies imposed by international organizations like the IMF and the World Bank, as well as the European Union. The films thus invite their spectators not only to empathize with African migrants, but also to look upon them as ”refugees from globalization,” and to ponder why ”the pursuit of happiness” is not considered a universal human right.

M3 - Book chapter

SN - 9780253039422

SN - 9780253039439

T3 - Studies in the Cinema of the Black Diaspora

SP - 280

EP - 302

BT - African Cinema & Human Rights

A2 - Hjort, Mette

A2 - Jørholt, Eva

PB - Indiana University Press

CY - Bloomington

ER -