TITLE:
Risk Does Not Deter Migration: The Social Production and Normalization of Risk in Ethiopia-South Africa Mobility
AUTHORS:
Ephrem Zerga Bereka
KEYWORDS:
Irregular Migration, Risk-Taking, Ethiopia, South Africa, Social Anthropology, Migration Studies, Transnational Migration
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Social Sciences,
Vol.14 No.7,
July
20,
2026
ABSTRACT: Risk and risk-taking behaviour are central to the study of irregular migration in Sub-Saharan Africa. Ethio-South African migration is characterised by a range of complex vulnerabilities experienced by migrants and their families across departure, transit, and destination stages. Existing literature, alongside reports from media, governmental, and non-governmental organisations, has documented experiences of death, imprisonment, abandonment, robbery, and repatriation along migration routes. While migration control measures are intended to regulate mobility, critical migration scholarship argues that such controls often contribute to the production and displacement of risk rather than its reduction, by pushing migrants into more dangerous and irregular pathways. In line with Harald Bauder’s conceptualisation of the social production of migration risk, this study understands migration-related dangers not as inherent to mobility itself, but as outcomes shaped by contemporary border regimes and restrictive migration governance. From this perspective, risks encountered along Ethio-South African migration routes are partly generated through the very systems designed to regulate movement, thereby structuring the conditions under which migrants make decisions and undertake journeys. Similarly, development- and employment-oriented interventions in countries of origin have shown limited effectiveness in discouraging migration among economically constrained populations. Although prior studies have examined migration drivers, facilitation networks, and incident-based accounts of migration, limited attention has been given to understanding why individuals continue to undertake dangerous journeys despite awareness of, or direct exposure to, adverse migration experiences. This study addresses this gap by examining risk-taking behaviours among successful migrants in South Africa, repatriated migrants, repeat migration attempters, and migrant families, including those who have experienced the loss of relatives during migration but continue to support further mobility within their households. A concurrent longitudinal study design was employed using a multi-sited ethnographic approach. Data were collected through 50 semi-structured interviews, 10 unstructured interviews, eight focus group discussions, and six in-depth key informant interviews. All interviews and focus groups were audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim, and translated where necessary. The data were systematically coded through iterative open and focused coding, enabling the development of analytical categories that informed the thematic interpretation of the findings. Fieldwork was conducted between June 2016 and January 2019 across Ethiopia, Malawi, Zimbabwe, and South Africa. Findings suggest that migration motivations are not static but evolve over time through exposure to conflict, internal displacement, and transnational social networks. While initial mobility is largely shaped by ethnic territoriality, violence, and forced displacement within Ethiopia, these drivers gradually shift as migrant networks and family knowledge of South Africa as a destination become established. Over time, migration aspirations are reconfigured from survival-based and displacement-induced movement into an ambition-oriented pursuit of improved livelihoods abroad. In this process, South Africa emerges as a socially constructed destination of opportunity, and migration decisions increasingly reflect aspiration-driven calculations rather than immediate coercive pressures. Importantly, these evolving risk perceptions and mobility decisions are embedded within structurally constrained migration regimes, where restrictive border practices shape the conditions of uncertainty under which migrants act, as highlighted in Bauder’s framework.