Borders by Proxy, Europe’s Aggressive Border Restrictions and the Perils of Young African Migrants

Abstract

The intrinsic challenges in the intersection of international laws and codes of praxis with respect to the operation of EU states’ border officials towards migrant individuals, to be specific, migrant African youth, is particularly pathetic and is a statement about the state’s commitment and compliance to its obligation and to the tenets of universal human rights law. This paper uses secondary data analysis and anti-racist and anti-colonial theories to examine the currently troubling dynamics of youth’s transnational border-crossing experiences. It concludes inter alia, that an understanding of the thought processes of potential migrants and their resolve to reach their goals at all cost might bring about a shift in the view of transnational migration stakeholders and scholars, and possibly chart a new trajectory, that might engender some modifications in existing policies for accommodation, and effective handling of the globally burgeoning cases of migrant individual.