ABSTRACT
Whereas many African would-be immigrants dream of a European life of freedom and social-economic progress, the reality for many of them appears to be harsh when they have reached the European Union. Endless waiting, unstable working contracts and short-term documentation seem to be part of their daily lives. On the basis of a trajectory ethnography, which gains longitudinal insights into the twists and turns of migration trajectories, this contribution aims to understand the fragmented mobility processes of African migrants once they have arrived in Europe. Inspired by the work of Tim Ingold (2007, 2011), it differentiates mobility processes that are characterized by flexibility and openness (wayfaring) from mobility processes in which options for the migrants are limited and their pathways are more or less channelized (transporting). With these conceptual and empirical insights, I reflect on the value of trajectory research in the field of transnational migration studies.
