El Harka: Perceptions of the Migration-Development Nexus in Post-Revolution Tunis

TY - JOUR

T1 - El Harka: Perceptions of the Migration-Development Nexus in Post-Revolution Tunis

AU - Harris, Jonathan

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Copyright: Copyright 2021 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.

PY - 2015/8

Y1 - 2015/8

N2 - In the 3 years since the ousting of Tunisia's dictator Zine El Abedine Ben Ali in January 2011, net emigration from Tunisia has doubled, suggesting a link between revolutionary politics and aspirations to emigrate. A large proportion of this emigration has taken the form of a clandestine crossing to Europe, locally called El Harka. This paper explores the complex interactions between the 'migration-development nexus' and revolutionary national politics in the aspirations of Tunisian young men to emigrate in the post-Revolution period. I use the sociologist Albert O. Hirschman's concept of 'Exit-Voice-Loyalty' to come to an understanding of the geographical imaginaries and spatial practices expressed by individual Tunisian men in relation to migration. I present my findings within a typology of 'surplus', 'circulation', and 'engagement' to describe the ways in which the inherent politics of migration are expressed. 'Surplus' emerged as a powerful discourse in post-Revolution Tunis, leading to politically significant notions of migrant identity. 'Circulation' denotes the developmental ideal held in tension with concerns over legality. I argue that the primacy of illegal emigration from Tunisia indicates the dominance of exploitative migration policies. Finally, political 'engagement' in the post-Revolution period is theorised to correlate to disinterest in emigration. The institution of freedom of expression is argued to increase 'loyalty', through privileging 'voice' over 'exit' as a course of action for the discontent.

AB - In the 3 years since the ousting of Tunisia's dictator Zine El Abedine Ben Ali in January 2011, net emigration from Tunisia has doubled, suggesting a link between revolutionary politics and aspirations to emigrate. A large proportion of this emigration has taken the form of a clandestine crossing to Europe, locally called El Harka. This paper explores the complex interactions between the 'migration-development nexus' and revolutionary national politics in the aspirations of Tunisian young men to emigrate in the post-Revolution period. I use the sociologist Albert O. Hirschman's concept of 'Exit-Voice-Loyalty' to come to an understanding of the geographical imaginaries and spatial practices expressed by individual Tunisian men in relation to migration. I present my findings within a typology of 'surplus', 'circulation', and 'engagement' to describe the ways in which the inherent politics of migration are expressed. 'Surplus' emerged as a powerful discourse in post-Revolution Tunis, leading to politically significant notions of migrant identity. 'Circulation' denotes the developmental ideal held in tension with concerns over legality. I argue that the primacy of illegal emigration from Tunisia indicates the dominance of exploitative migration policies. Finally, political 'engagement' in the post-Revolution period is theorised to correlate to disinterest in emigration. The institution of freedom of expression is argued to increase 'loyalty', through privileging 'voice' over 'exit' as a course of action for the discontent.

KW - Arab spring

KW - Development

KW - Migration

KW - Migration geopolitics

KW - Migration-development nexus

KW - Mobilities

UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/84948385242

U2 - 10.1002/psp.1865

DO - 10.1002/psp.1865

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:84948385242

SN - 1544-8444

VL - 21

SP - 493

EP - 505

JO - Population, Space and Place

JF - Population, Space and Place

IS - 6

ER -