Chapter 2: Contemporary Global Discourses of Migration and Migrants

In many ways, contemporary migration patterns resemble migration patterns of the 19th century, which were largely driven by colonial adventures. The difference, however, is that contemporary migrations are South to North as opposed to North to South and the migrants are largely desperate people escaping difficult economic conditions, wars, and various kinds of persecutions in Africa and South America. In fact, the general trend about contemporary migrations is that people move from economically weak countries to economically strong countries, either within the Global South or without. In recent years, the world has witnessed large numbers of people migrating from countries in South America such as Honduras, Guatemala, and Mexico to the United States and from Africa and the Middle East to Europe. The latter trend has been associated with the war in Syria, the collapse of Muammar Gaddafi’s regime in Libya, and more recently, the Russia–Ukraine war. One common thread in all these migrations is economic strife and the breakdown of governance systems in the sending countries. Decolonial scholars have explained contemporary global migration patterns through the notion of coloniality which designates the persistence of quasi-colonial systems and structures of governance in former colonised territories of the Global South. According to decolonial theorists, the Global South constitute what they call ‘the darker side of modernity’, a zone of none being which must remain in the darkness of economic strife, poor governance, hunger, disease, etc. to maintain the bright shine of modernity in the Global North. It is from this perspective that we see a connection between contemporary migrations and colonialism and its legacies. The legacy of colonialism that we have in mind is not only that of economic plunder and dispossession but also that of negative stereotypes and misrepresentations of people of the Global South.