19 sep 2025 - 11:27 CET

Why do so many Africans migrate to the West, even beyond poverty, conflict, or climate change? In this talk, Professor Gebrewold will analyze African migration as a quest for recognition: a desire to "be" through the imitation of Western lifestyles and values, framed by the legacy of colonialism and slavery.

Drawing on his recent book, Postcolonial African Migration to the West: A Mimetic Desire for Being (Palgrave Macmillan, 2024), he will show how the physical and symbolic walls erected by the West become a stage for the clash between exclusion and the desire for belonging. Faced with these barriers, migration reveals itself as a movement explained not only by material factors, but also by the mimetic search for recognition and existence.

Belachew Gebrewold is Professor of International Relations and Director of the Department and Studies of Social Work and Social Policy at MCI, Innsbruck. Her research interests include Euro-African relations, African politics, conflict, and migration. She has published numerous articles and monographs, including Africa and Fortress Europe (2008), Anatomy of Violence (2009), Understanding Migrant Decisions (2018), and Human Trafficking and Exploitation (2019). She served on the steering committee for the preparation of the UN Global Compact for Safe, Orderly, and Regular Migration (2017) and on the Migration Council of the Austrian Ministry of the Interior (2014–2017).