Unfulfilled Expectations for Making a Better Life: Young Malian men coping with their post deportation adventures

Abstract

This article offers insight into the unfulfilled expectations of young Malian men, who sought a better life in Europe, and to contribute to their families, only to be forcefully returned. Tracing these men’s trajectories and daily life representations, it explores their experiences and narrations, and how these contribute to scholarly debates on youth, migration, and work. Based on cases from Kita, southern Mali, the article questions whether these men are thrown back into “waithood,” prevented from obtaining the status of social adulthood. The data indicate potential coping strategies. Many may talk about re-migrating, but ultimately remain in their village. While some are held in “involuntary immobility,” others cope with the presumed failure and make a better life where they are.