Description
Book SynopsisFrom the harrowing situation of migrants trying to cross the Mediterranean in rubber dinghies to the crisis on the US-Mexico border, mass migration is one of the most urgent issues facing our societies today. At the same time, viable solutions seem ever more remote, with the increasing polarization of public attitudes and political positions.
In this book, Stephen Smith focuses on ‘young Africa’ – 40 per cent of its population are under fifteen – anda dramatic demographic shift. Today, 510 million people live inside EU borders, and 1.25 billion people in Africa. In 2050, 450 million Europeans will face 2.5 billion Africans – five times their number. The demographics are implacable. The scramble for Europe will become as inexorable as the ‘scramble for Africa’ was at the end of the nineteenth century, when 275 million people lived north and only 100 million lived south of the Mediterranean. Then it was all about raw materials and national pride, now it is about young Africans seeking a better life on the Old Continent, the island of prosperity within their reach. If Africa’s migratory patterns follow the historic precedents set by other less developed parts of the world, in thirty years a quarter of Europe’s population will beAfro-Europeans. Addressingthe question of how Europe cancope with an influx of this magnitude, Smith argues for a path between the two extremes of today’s debate. He advocatesmigratory policies of ‘good neighbourhood’ equidistant from guilt-ridden self-denial and nativist egoism.
This sobering analysis of the migration challenges we now face will be essential reading for anyone concerned with the great social and political questions of our time.
Trade Review"The Scramble for Europe is a calm, measured book that aims to take the emotion out of the debate about immigration from Africa, while at the same time not avoiding the difficult issues by pretending that the situation is under control. It is an approach that runs against the grain of politics. Hence the enormous importance of this book at a time when Old Europe is trying to make allies on the young continent in the hope that these inescapable movements of people will remain an African affair."
Le Monde
"A must-read for anyone who wants to understand today's perilous migration flows."
Midi Libre
"An indispensable book for understanding the key challenges of the coming decades."
Le Point
"Stephen Smith has written a remarkably dispassionate, factual and insightful analysis of the Europe-Africa predicament. He succeeds in stepping back from fearful, moralized narratives and short-term perspectives in order to grasp the bigger social, cultural and political implications of Africa's demographic abundance and the vast migrations it undoubtedly entails. He poses questions that Europeans and Africans can no longer afford to ignore."
—Alex De Waal, Tufts University
"Provocative and well-researched...."
Digital Insider
"Stephen Smith is at his best."
Financial Times
"... absorbing."
Middle East Quarterly
Table of ContentsAcknowledgements
Introduction: A View from the Top of the Population Pyramid
Africa: The Mexico of Europe
A 'stress test' between generations
Africa Has Not Yet Taken Off
The Kingdom of Lies
Chapter One: The Law of Large Numbers
Africa: The World's Youth
Nigeria: Take it or Leave It
Lagos: Half Paradise, Half Slum
The Chinese Model
Demographic Governance
Chapter Two: The Island-Continent of Peter Pan
Empty Granaries, Coveted Land
The 'Birth' of Youth
Suicides in a blue frock coat
Brothers and Sisters in Faith
Democracy, a Barmecide feast
Chapter Three - Emerging Africa
Trade secrets
The 'gatekeeper state'
'A Billion Good Reasons'
Identity as a repertoire
Musa Wo, the legendary 'enfant terrible'
Chapter Four: A Cascade of Departures
The dilemma of development aid
The Draining of Lake Chad
To Live the 'White Man's Life'
The repertoire of rejection
Zooming in on the Mare nostrum
Chapter Five: Europe as Destination and Destiny
Don't reckon without your host
Plugging a Leaky Dike with Sandbags of Euros
'Bowling Alone'
Smashing the actuarial tables
Beware of 'transfers'
'A Rancour Sharpened by the Winter'
By Way of Conclusion: Some Plausible Scenarios for the Future
The Obsession with 'Scenes and Types'
Go See the Other Side!
Notes
Bibliography
