The existential logic of migrant deaths in the EU-African borderlands

In a book chapter entitled ‘Kierkegaard in West Africa: Hope and Sacrifice in a Ghanaian Fishing Village’, senior researcher Hans Lucht views the deadly migrant journeys across the Mediterranean through the lens of Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard.

Lucht argues that risking everything to reach Europe is an attempt to revitalize frozen social and political cirumstances in the departure countries and somehow reinstate a sense of belonging in the global world.

By being ready to give up everything – even their lives – migrants seek to force forward a moral fabric that is otherwise missing in their disenfranchised social worlds where often they are the playthings of coincidence. Yet, the deadly journeys often fail to reward the investment which leads to great disappointment as migrants drop to the bottom of European host societies.