Sébastien Bachelet
Biographic Data
| ID | 668520 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Sébastien Bachelet |
| GIVEN NAMES | Sébastien |
| FAMILY NAME | Bachelet |
| SIGNATURE | BACHELET S |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Manchester |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-5336-1051 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 13 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 59 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 13 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2014 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
Humor and Laughter among Irregularized Migrants
This article focuses on a ‘day off’ spent at a Moroccan beach with ‘irregularized’ migrants from Central and Western Africa. For these young men on a dangerous quest for dignity and a better life, engaging in humorous exchanges and laughter was crucial to cultivate, maintain, and display the ‘right mentality’ while facing violent border regimes. This was an important feature in the articulation of their lives and journeys as ‘adventurers’ abiding…
The adventure
This ethnographic exploration of irregular migration from Western and Central Africa in Morocco deconstructs dehumanising narratives of a "migration crisis" and a "sub-Saharan problem" in politics of migration. The book provides an original focus on how migrants understood and experienced their entrapped mobility. The emic notion of "the adventure" at the heart of this study sheds light on a transformative, epic quest to carve out a better life a…
Migration in the Maghreb
This editorial introduction offers an overview of the research presented in the special issue which collates a series of research articles, research notes, commentaries and an interview by an interdisciplinary and cross-sectoral selection of authors based either in academic research institutions or in civil society organisations (CSOs). The article foregrounds the significance of this special issue in bringing a critical mass of expertise on migr…
Vulnerability workers
‘ Être vraiment vrai’
This article explores truth demands, politics of in/visibility, and migration in Morocco. Based on the participatory research project Arts for Advocacy: Creative Engagement with Forced Displacement in Morocco, we argue that narratives which depart from migrants’ confessional accounts of victimhood and contest truth demands can shift the in/visibility of migrants. Besides contributing to scholarship on the use of participatory, creative processes …
Insidious Harassment
Amidst well‐documented hostile migration policies, this article explores how logics of criminalisation seep into the lives of activists and citizens, providing assistance, relief, advocacy, and other forms of support to migrant people. As presences considered legal and legitimate, solidarity actors inhabit distinct subjectivities from those of people migrating informally, yet state authorities interpret their acts as problematic and subject them …
Migration, race, and gender
The policing of racialised migrant people in Morocco and across the Maghreb has been violent since the 1990s. The intimidation of those who support migrant people and seek to denounce human rights abuses against them has become an important dimension of border control. This article investigates the policing of “subversive solidarity actors”: human rights defenders and activists who publicly or covertly engage in a critical stance on migration con…
“Looking for One’s Life”
This article examines how “irregular” migrants from West and Central Africa make sense of their trapped mobility in Morocco: for many, crossing into Europe has become almost impossible, returning to home countries “empty-handed” a shameful option, and staying very difficult in the face of repeated infringement of their rights. I explore the limits of contemporary depictions of a “migration crisis” that portray migrants south of the Mediterranean …
Creative engagement with migration in Morocco
This article examines the contentious topic of participation through the lens of a collaborative arts-based project on migration in Morocco. We call for the ethnographic exploration of photographic encounters: that is, participant observation of the processes of shooting, selecting, editing, preparing and exhibiting of photographs and films. First, we explore the need to identify barriers to participation and reflect on the role of researchers. S…
Wastingmbeng
This article examines how irregular migrants from Central and Western Africa stranded in Morocco forged tenuous but essential relationships in the face of hostile and violent border politics constraining their mobility and resulting in systematic infringement of their rights. I examine the basis of trust amongst migrants in Morocco, who called themselves 'adventurers' on a quest for the 'objective' (e.g. 'finding their lives', usually through get…
Fighting against Clandestine Migration
Drawing on ethnographic research in Morocco among irregular migrants from Central and Western Africa, this article shifts the exploration of what it means to be political by examining how migrants' political participation is entangled with their attempts to overcome the uncertainty inherent to their lives. Recent scholarship has exposed and decentered boundaries between the citizen and the illegal migrant, placing a prominent focus on migrants' s…
Tomorrow, might there be glory
The Unfamiliar 4 (1): 30-33Tomorrow, might there be gloryThe following poem, translated from French, was written by Houdou, a young Cameroonian migrant, in Douar Hajja, a marginal neighbourhood of Rabat, Morocco.There, hundreds of sub-Saharan migrants in an irregular situation like Houdou, or the young Burkinabe man pictured on the accompanying photograph, find themselves in very precarious living conditions.After long and harrowing journeys, mig…
‘Stay Calm and Carry On?’ Adventurers in the Neighborhood of Joy and Machetes
“Adventurers” is the nickname that “irregular” sub‐Saharan migrants—in Morocco and beyond—have given to themselves. Heroic discourses surrounding migrants’ journeys and their exploits towards Fortress Europe are the antithesis of what Hage (2009) describes as “heroism of stuckedness”; that is a conservative governmentality which delegitimizes impatience and disruption in a permanent time of crisis. “Boatpeople,” “illegal migrants,” who do not “wa…
Fighting against Clandestine Migration
Drawing on ethnographic research in Morocco among irregular migrants from Central and Western Africa, this article shifts the exploration of what it means to be political by examining how migrants' political participation is entangled with their attempts to overcome the uncertainty inherent to their lives. Recent scholarship has exposed and decentered boundaries between the citizen and the illegal migrant, placing a prominent focus on migrants' s…
Wastingmbeng
This article examines how irregular migrants from Central and Western Africa stranded in Morocco forged tenuous but essential relationships in the face of hostile and violent border politics constraining their mobility and resulting in systematic infringement of their rights. I examine the basis of trust amongst migrants in Morocco, who called themselves 'adventurers' on a quest for the 'objective' (e.g. 'finding their lives', usually through get…
Creative engagement with migration in Morocco
This article examines the contentious topic of participation through the lens of a collaborative arts-based project on migration in Morocco. We call for the ethnographic exploration of photographic encounters: that is, participant observation of the processes of shooting, selecting, editing, preparing and exhibiting of photographs and films. First, we explore the need to identify barriers to participation and reflect on the role of researchers. S…
Insidious Harassment
Amidst well‐documented hostile migration policies, this article explores how logics of criminalisation seep into the lives of activists and citizens, providing assistance, relief, advocacy, and other forms of support to migrant people. As presences considered legal and legitimate, solidarity actors inhabit distinct subjectivities from those of people migrating informally, yet state authorities interpret their acts as problematic and subject them …
Vulnerability workers
Tomorrow, might there be glory
The Unfamiliar 4 (1): 30-33Tomorrow, might there be gloryThe following poem, translated from French, was written by Houdou, a young Cameroonian migrant, in Douar Hajja, a marginal neighbourhood of Rabat, Morocco.There, hundreds of sub-Saharan migrants in an irregular situation like Houdou, or the young Burkinabe man pictured on the accompanying photograph, find themselves in very precarious living conditions.After long and harrowing journeys, mig…
‘Stay Calm and Carry On?’ Adventurers in the Neighborhood of Joy and Machetes
“Adventurers” is the nickname that “irregular” sub‐Saharan migrants—in Morocco and beyond—have given to themselves. Heroic discourses surrounding migrants’ journeys and their exploits towards Fortress Europe are the antithesis of what Hage (2009) describes as “heroism of stuckedness”; that is a conservative governmentality which delegitimizes impatience and disruption in a permanent time of crisis. “Boatpeople,” “illegal migrants,” who do not “wa…
Fighting against Clandestine Migration
Drawing on ethnographic research in Morocco among irregular migrants from Central and Western Africa, this article shifts the exploration of what it means to be political by examining how migrants' political participation is entangled with their attempts to overcome the uncertainty inherent to their lives. Recent scholarship has exposed and decentered boundaries between the citizen and the illegal migrant, placing a prominent focus on migrants' s…
“Looking for One’s Life”
This article examines how “irregular” migrants from West and Central Africa make sense of their trapped mobility in Morocco: for many, crossing into Europe has become almost impossible, returning to home countries “empty-handed” a shameful option, and staying very difficult in the face of repeated infringement of their rights. I explore the limits of contemporary depictions of a “migration crisis” that portray migrants south of the Mediterranean …
Creative engagement with migration in Morocco
This article examines the contentious topic of participation through the lens of a collaborative arts-based project on migration in Morocco. We call for the ethnographic exploration of photographic encounters: that is, participant observation of the processes of shooting, selecting, editing, preparing and exhibiting of photographs and films. First, we explore the need to identify barriers to participation and reflect on the role of researchers. S…
Wastingmbeng
This article examines how irregular migrants from Central and Western Africa stranded in Morocco forged tenuous but essential relationships in the face of hostile and violent border politics constraining their mobility and resulting in systematic infringement of their rights. I examine the basis of trust amongst migrants in Morocco, who called themselves 'adventurers' on a quest for the 'objective' (e.g. 'finding their lives', usually through get…
Migration, race, and gender
The policing of racialised migrant people in Morocco and across the Maghreb has been violent since the 1990s. The intimidation of those who support migrant people and seek to denounce human rights abuses against them has become an important dimension of border control. This article investigates the policing of “subversive solidarity actors”: human rights defenders and activists who publicly or covertly engage in a critical stance on migration con…
‘ Être vraiment vrai’
This article explores truth demands, politics of in/visibility, and migration in Morocco. Based on the participatory research project Arts for Advocacy: Creative Engagement with Forced Displacement in Morocco, we argue that narratives which depart from migrants’ confessional accounts of victimhood and contest truth demands can shift the in/visibility of migrants. Besides contributing to scholarship on the use of participatory, creative processes …
Insidious Harassment
Amidst well‐documented hostile migration policies, this article explores how logics of criminalisation seep into the lives of activists and citizens, providing assistance, relief, advocacy, and other forms of support to migrant people. As presences considered legal and legitimate, solidarity actors inhabit distinct subjectivities from those of people migrating informally, yet state authorities interpret their acts as problematic and subject them …
The adventure
This ethnographic exploration of irregular migration from Western and Central Africa in Morocco deconstructs dehumanising narratives of a "migration crisis" and a "sub-Saharan problem" in politics of migration. The book provides an original focus on how migrants understood and experienced their entrapped mobility. The emic notion of "the adventure" at the heart of this study sheds light on a transformative, epic quest to carve out a better life a…
Migration in the Maghreb
This editorial introduction offers an overview of the research presented in the special issue which collates a series of research articles, research notes, commentaries and an interview by an interdisciplinary and cross-sectoral selection of authors based either in academic research institutions or in civil society organisations (CSOs). The article foregrounds the significance of this special issue in bringing a critical mass of expertise on migr…
Vulnerability workers
Humor and Laughter among Irregularized Migrants
This article focuses on a ‘day off’ spent at a Moroccan beach with ‘irregularized’ migrants from Central and Western Africa. For these young men on a dangerous quest for dignity and a better life, engaging in humorous exchanges and laughter was crucial to cultivate, maintain, and display the ‘right mentality’ while facing violent border regimes. This was an important feature in the articulation of their lives and journeys as ‘adventurers’ abiding…
Migration, Refugees, and Integration (9 works) · Political science (9 works) · Sociology (8 works) · Diaspora, migration, transnational identity (6 works) · Law (6 works) · Migration and Labor Dynamics (6 works) · Adventure (4 works) · Political economy (4 works) · Politics (4 works) · Social science (4 works)