Not one route but many: unpacking migration to Europe

Abstract

Although migration across the Mediterranean in 2015 was often discussed as if it was a single flow it was, as we have seen, composed of two routes – one to Italy, one to Greece – which were themselves a product of the merging of multiple flows which converged in Libya and Turkey respectively. Each of these flows was, in turn, composed of people with different characteristics and different migratory experiences. This chapter outlines the characteristics of the refugees and migrants we spoke to during our research before describing the routes and journeys that they took prior to their arrival in Europe. These included not only the journey to Europe itself but also longer-term trajectories and serial migration decisions which involve what we refer to as ‘stops’ and ‘stays’ of varying duration, often with no predetermined final destination.