Study name: The (De-)Colonial Dynamics of Im-mobility in 21st Century Representations of Migration: An Interdisciplinary Study of (Counter-)Narratives around (North-)African ‘Harga’ to EU-rope
Project lead: Khaoula Zitouni Sayyah
Project length: 2020– 2024
Project overview
Situated at the cross-roads of im-mobility scholarship, cultural studies, and digital humanities, this thesis offers an interdisciplinary examination of 21st-century representations of (North-)African-European unauthorized migration, known as harga in Maghrebi dialects, against the backdrop of the European ‘migrant crisis’. Although this phenomenon has been extensively studied in the European cultural contexts, perspectives from the Southern Mediterranean remain underexplored. To address this gap, this study engages with harga-centered (counter-)narratives produced in Arabic and French from the Maghreb between 2015 and 2019—a period marked by intensified media attention to ‘South-North’ migration prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. Using a hybrid qualitative framework combining Multimodal and Critical Narrative Analysis, this thesis maps three regimes of migration representation: media, testimonial literature, and digital platforms. Applying a decolonial lens, it critically interrogates Algerian and Moroccan mediascapes, revealing discursive mechanisms that dehumanize unauthorized migrants and circumscribe their identities. While testimonial accounts by sub-Saharan migrants and Western co-authors challenge media clichés, the study highlights the persistent coloniality of the French language and its bordering effect on migrants’ (hi)stories. Extending the conceptual framework of immobility into cyberspaces, the thesis then shifts its focus to Algerian and Moroccan (would-be) harraga’s digitally mediated, subversive migratory imaginaries and practices—communicated to online audiences through hybridi(sed) linguistic repertoires—to illustrate the extent to which they resist and disrupt dominant migration narratives by mobilising alternative, unfiltered gazes on the multifaceted nature of the harga journey to Europe. By moving beyond the confines of monolingual paradigms, this research illuminates the interconnections between language(s) and identity negotiation within cultural productions, and examines the ways in which they inform Mediterranean audiences’ perceptions of (North-)African harraga. Ultimately, this study aims to extend ongoing academic inquiries into the (de-)colonial dynamics of 21st-century im-mobility narratives, while emphasising their complexities and the insights they offer for rethinking migration representation.