Abstract
This project investigates the performance and narration of masculinities of involuntary returned Senegalese men, thus contributing to the study of changing gender relations and migration. In Senegal, masculine forms of honour depend on the ability to pay bride-wealth, marry and provide for one’s extended family. Yet marriage, and thus becoming an ‘adult man’, is increasingly unobtainable due to the lack of economic opportunities. Migration can increase the social standing of men and be a solution to this 'crisis of masculinity'. Yet European migration governance focuses on returning unwanted migrants to their country of origin, with Senegalese men representing a large number of those returned. Little is known about the socio-cultural consequences of such returns. How do young Senegalese men navigate, perform and narrate their masculinities in a context of involuntary return migration? This understanding can lead to a better reintegration of migrants and highlight possible unintended consequences of European migration policies. This research is innovative because it combines approaches that have heretofore been employed separately; using an intersectional approach, ethnography, the study of popular culture and biographical work to investigate the relationship between masculinities and migration. Masculinity is not only a performative praxis but also narrated. In life-narratives and popular culture different forms of masculinities are negotiated. This research adds an empirical case to the conceptual debate within gender studies on agency, investigating this in a setting where masculinities have hardly been analysed. I question the often calculative understanding of migration by focusing on the (im)possibilies of socio-cultural transformations.