Alan Kurdî, deaths in the desert and failed migrants' processing of dystopic images on social media. Issue 2 (1st October 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Ojebode, Ayobami
• Is Part Of: Crossings. Volume 8:Issue 2(2017)
• Page Start: 115
• Page End: 130
• Publication Date: 2017-10-01
• Subjects: Emigration and immigration -- Periodicals; Emigration and immigration -- Social aspects -- Periodicals; Multiculturalism -- Periodicals; 304.8205
• DOI: 10.1386/cjmc.8.2.115_1
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2040-4344

Abstract

Studies of migration emphasize the role of an imagined better world or utopia in migration intention and decision. That imaginary world is a product not so much of experience but of images conveyed through different sources, especially social media. If utopic images prod migration, do dystopic images of death and suffering en route discourage it? Through a small-N life-world ethnography, this article explores how failed migrants process dystopic images that are connected with migration. Failed migrants, that is, those who attempted migrating but did not succeed, were asked to explore and discuss the viral photograph of Alan Kurdî's lifeless body on the shores of the Mediterranean and that of migrants who starved to death in Sahara Desert. Though these dystopic images sobered failed migrants, they (the images) did not attenuate their migration desperation. In processing the images, failed migrants deployed three strategies: migrating from fear to faith, migrating from dystopic to utopic platforms and cropping off dystopia. These findings call to question the power of images to influence desperate individuals and lend credence to the tenets of the theory of selectivity. Therefore, efforts aimed at stemming illegal migration might have to do more than frightening intending migrants with dystopic images.