Expanding Boundaries: Borders, Mobilities and the Future of Europe-Africa Relations

The Clash ’s ( 1978 ) account of the “Safe European Home” provides a captiv-ating narrative about the feelings of displacement and anxiety commonly felt in encountering otherness. The lyrics point to a painful reality in which the freedom of movement of the wealthy and powerful extends further than that of the poor and powerless. They go on to describe how the mere right to move does not necessarily lead to belongingness and acceptance. The song provided inspiration for the argumentation here because of its unblemished articulation of the anxiety caused by unfamiliarity, as well as the yearning for wholeness and the safety of home. As Bourdieu ( 2000 , p. 142) expressed it, whereas the unfamiliar is “out of place”, home is the place “to be”. It is in acknowledging the highly ambivalent and paradoxical effects of the thick, historically rooted, idea of “home” (Duyvendak, 2011 , p. 102) refl ected in our self- image and used to block immigrant integration that this chapter underlines the need for introspection, for only by looking inwards fi rst may we see outwards clearly and build an honest base for Europe– Africa relations.