Backway to Europe: Talking Borders and Migration with Gambians on the Move is a podcast series produced in collaboration with Gambian advocates and activists. It centers their analyses of the border regime through their direct experiences of “the backway” — the local term for the illegalized route to Europe. These experiences resonate with many who have attempted to reach Europe across West Africa and beyond. The first part of the series, composed of seven episodes, features members of Youth Against Irregular Migration (YAIM), an advocacy organization founded by young Gambians who met in a Libyan detention centre. Through their reflections, the series explores why regular migration is often unattainable; documents the journeys, detentions, and returns of migrants; and examines how “return and reintegration” policies are lived, negotiated, and resisted. It considers why the backway remains a widespread response to the economic and structural challenges faced by Gambian youth, and what it means to conduct migration advocacy from an African perspective. The project emerged from an ongoing dialogue between YAIM and Viola Castellano, an anthropologist researching European border externalization policies. The podcast builds on themes identified by YAIM in their advocacy. Castellano provides contextual notes on visa regimes, border infrastructures, and EU externalization, while the core analysis and narration are driven by the participants’ testimonies and political reflections. Each episode is accompanied by a full transcript to foster deeper engagement with the speakers’ arguments, along with an annotated bibliography designed to support students and researchers working on related topics.
The second episode explores the material and symbolic motivations for Gambian youth choosing the backway to Europe, contrasting the modern, […]
Backway to Europe is a podcast series produced in collaboration with Gambian advocates and activists. It centers their analyses of
