Harraga

Harragas, sometimes spelled Haraga[1] (Harrag in the singular form) (from Algerian Arabic حراقة, ḥarrāga, ḥarrāg, "those who burn"[2][3]) are North African migrants who illegally immigrate to Europe or to European-controlled islands sometimes in makeshift boats.[4][5][6] The term Harraga literally means “to burn” alluding to the migrants practice of burning their Identity papers[7] and personal documents in order to prevent identification by authorities in Europe.[8][9][10][11] The North African men who partake in illegal migration refer to themselves as Harragas (burners).[10][12][13][5]

The Harraga are from the Maghreb, they are specifically Algerians, Moroccans, or Tunisians and are predominantly men between the ages of twenty and thirty five years old.[11][14] The term Harraga is also used in reference to the act of covertly crossing over a country's border or transgression of a law.[15] It can also refer to smugglers and human-traffickers who directly facilitate regular and irregular migration.[1][16]

Etymology

Harraga (in ar: حراقة), Harraga is an Algerian neologism created from the Arabic word “hrag,” meaning “burn” or “those who burn” the borders. It is used to describe irregular North African migrants who attempt to leave for Europe by boat.[4] The verb 'to burn' can also mean 'to jump a queue' or to 'run a light'.[17] The word derives from Moroccan or Algerian Arabic, designating "those who burn.",[6] meaning those who burn their ID-papers and seek their fortune as asylum-seekers in Europe. The Harraga is the action of "burning the borders and the sea."

General

The earliest references to the phenomenon of irregular migration of undocumented North African migrants (Harraga) to Europe can be traced to the 1980s.[6] The Harraga who migrate to Europe do not necessarily come from the least educated or the poorest communities in their respective countries.[18]

On the Mediterranean coast of North Africa, Algerian, Tunisian, and Moroccan harragas typically hope to cross the Strait of Gibraltar in order to reach Spain, specifically the Spanish regions of Andalusia, Ceuta[19] and Melilla.[19] Additionally, harragas also sometimes manage to complete the voyage from Africa to the island nation of Malta,[20] or the Italian island of Lampedusa.[19] From here they often go on to emigrate to other regions of Europe.[20]

On the Atlantic coast of North Africa, Mauritanian and Senegalese harragas set off in hope of reaching the Spanish-controlled Canary Islands in small, flat-bottomed boats referred to in Spanish as "patera",[21] or in rigid or inflatable rafts, (such as "Zodiac" rafts),[21] or even paddle boats.[21] Obviously, boats such as these are not designed for ocean crossings and the death rates for harragas are very high. The motivations for undertaking this extremely risky act are twofold: profound economic poverty and extreme political repression, both widespread throughout North Africa.[19]

Film

Algerian film director Moussa Haddad started shooting a film entitled Harraga Blues February 6, 2011.[22] The project is currently still in production.[22]

Bibliography
  • Sansal, Boualem. Harraga, (Gallimard, 2007) (French) ISBN 978-2-07-034329-4
  • Sansal, Boualem. Harraga, (Merlin, 2007) (German) ISBN 978-3-87536-254-1
  • Lozano, Antonio. Harraga, (Zech, Tenerife 2011, first ed. Zoela, Granada 2002) (Spanish) ISBN 978-84-938151-2-7
  • Lozano, Antonio. Harraga, (Zech, Tenerife 2011) (German) ISBN 978-84-938151-1-0
  • Arianna Obinu. Harraga, il sogno europeo passa attraverso la Sardegna (2006-2012), Livorno, Edizioni Erasmo, 2013 (Italiano) (ISBN 9788898598014)

References
  1. Walton-Roberts, Margaret; Hennebry, Jenna (2013-08-16). Territoriality and Migration in the E.U. Neighbourhood: Spilling over the Wall. Springer Science & Business Media. ISBN 978-94-007-6745-4. In addition to those who “facilitate” irregular migration directly (such as smugglers, called “haraga” in Morocco) there is also a notable presence and availability of money transfer agencies, internet cafe's and other communication services that also facilitate the step-by-step migration processes of both regular and irregular migrants that is characteristic for many (sub-Saharan African) transit migrants (Lahlou 2007).
  2. Ambrosini, Maurizio (2019). Migration, Borders and Citizenship: Between Policy and Public Spheres. Springer Nature. p. 51. ISBN 978-3-030-22157-7. “harragas” (those who cross illegally via the borders of the Maghreb) ... {Harragas is an Arabic term referring to “those who burn”, metaphorically, the frontier posts referring to North Africans who illegally immigrate to Europe on rickety boats.)
  3. Sarat, Austin; Ewick, Patricia (2015-06-22). The Handbook of Law and Society. John Wiley & Sons. p. 364. ISBN 978-1-118-70146-1. In France undocumented people are called sans papiers (“without papers”), while in North African media they are called harraga (“those who burn” in Arabic), which refers to migrants seeking entry into Europe or European‐controlled territories, who, if apprehended by authorities, often burn their immigration papers as a sign of protest and an effort to stall extradition processes.
  4. Ghafar, Adel Abdel (2019-04-23). The European Union and North Africa: Prospects and Challenges. Brookings Institution Press. p. 48. ISBN 978-0-8157-3696-7. Harraga is an Algerian neologism created from the Arabic word “hrag,” meaning “burn” or “those who burn” the borders. It is used to describe irregular North African migrants who attempt to leave for Europe by boat.
  5. Abderrezak, Hakim (2016-06-20). Ex-Centric Migrations: Europe and the Maghreb in Mediterranean Cinema, Literature, and Music. Indiana University Press. p. 68. ISBN 978-0-253-02078-9. As for harragas (burners), also spelled harraga and harragua, it is the neologism used in the Maghreb, as well as by French media, to refer to individuals who emigrate clandestinely in search of more promising opportunities.
  6. Sultana, Ronald G. (2012-01-01). Educators of the Mediterranean... ...Up Close and Personal. Springer Science & Business Media. p. 239. ISBN 978-94-6091-681-6. Since the 1980s, faced with bleak job markets, waves of North African youth migrated illegally to Europe. These illegal migrants are known as the Harraga. The term derives from the Moroccan Arabic verb hrag (to burn). It refers to the illegal act of crossing the European borders through the Mediterranean. Burning (lhrig) takes place through renouncing Moroccan and other North African nationalities. The illegal migrant arrives at his/her European destination, settles, finds a new job, gets citizenship and goes back to his/her home country as a new person.
  7. "BBC Radio 4 - Crossing Continents, The Harragas of Algeria". BBC. 24 Aug 2015. Retrieved 2020-02-12. The Harragas of Algeria. Crossing Continents. Lucy Ash meets the Harragas of Algeria, the young people who burn their identity papers and head north across the Mediterranean leaving family, friends and stability behind.
  8. Gauch, Suzanne (2016). Maghrebs in Motion: North African Cinema in Nine Movements. Oxford University Press. p. 214. ISBN 978-0-19-026257-0. In North African parlance, these men are harraga (from harraqa, burners), a term derived from undocumented immigrants' practice of burning their identity papers in an effort to thwart authorities seeking to return them to their point of origin.
  9. Gregoriou, Christiana (2018-01-01). Representations of Transnational Human Trafficking: Present-day News Media, True Crime, and Fiction. Springer. p. 99. ISBN 978-3-319-78214-0. harraga, a term used to describe illegal immigrants from North Africa who have burned their personal documents in order to prevent identification by European authorities, “literally burn[ing] down social, cultural and familial identities” (Beneduce, 2008, p. 513; Abderrezak, 2016, p. 68).
  10. Craig, Gary (2010). Child Slavery Now: A Contemporary Reader. Policy Press. ISBN 978-1-84742-610-9. Their liminality is expressed in the name they give themselves: harragas, meaning 'those who burn their papers before leaving' (EFUS, 2009, p 50).
  11. Milanovic, Branko (2010-12-28). The Haves and the Have-Nots: A Brief and Idiosyncratic History of Global Inequality. Basic Books. p. 59. ISBN 978-0-465-02230-4. Vignette 2.5 Who Are the Harraga? They are called the “burners of papers," although they could also be called “the burners of borders.” They burn their own papers so that when they make it to Europe and the governments there try to send them back to their countries [..] The harraga are almost entirely young men, between twenty and thirty-five years old, from the Maghreb.
  12. Mai, Nicola (2018-11-16). Mobile Orientations: An Intimate Autoethnography of Migration, Sex Work, and Humanitarian Borders. University of Chicago Press. p. 93. ISBN 978-0-226-58514-7. Most of them had attempted to reach Italy several times, and they considered themselves harragas, just as the young Moroccan men selling sex in Seville's moral region had done. The term harraga comes from the Arabic verb harga, meaning "to burn"; it refers to young men burning their papers and, more generally, "burning" (i.e., yearning) for Europe. Prevailing media and policymaking representations of harragas obfuscate the rationalities and agencies involved in their decision to migrate by focusing on images of the numerous deaths caused by the ruthless enforcement of EU borders on the Mediterranean (Nair 2007).
  13. Pouligny, Béatrice; Chesterman, Simon; Schnabel, Albrecht (2007). After Mass Crime: Rebuilding States and Communities. United Nations University Press. p. 47. ISBN 978-92-808-1138-4. It is not without reason that the Arab term to define an illegal migrant in Morocco is "harraga, 'the burner'
  14. Davis, Muriam Haleh; Serres, Thomas (2018-02-22). North Africa and the Making of Europe: Governance, Institutions and Culture. Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 165. ISBN 978-1-350-02183-9. The focus on women is related to the fact that most harraga are young men. Gender norms in their home country also play a role. ... The predominance of young men among harraga is also due to the specific obstacles women face in embarking for Europe. The ways in which potential harraga obtain information on migratory strategies and the fact that they meet with one another (and with smugglers) in places of specifically male sociality also explain the small proportion of females. Women also face specific risks when departing from an isolated beach, in the middle of the night, in a group that is mostly composed of men. In addition, if their attempt at crossing the Mediterranean fails, it is often difficult for them to go back and live under the family roof because of the social stigma of female undocumented migrants.
  15. Revue noire (in French). Publications Editions Bleu Outremer. 1999. p. 130. Harraga it's the word • hrag » : to burn, to secretly cross over a border, to transgress a law.
  16. Antropologi i Finland. Seura. 2002. p. 153. The specific social context of migrant smuggling, called Harraga in Northern Moroccan colloquial Arabic, and the micro-level social processes involved in it is the specific topic of my dissertation.
  17. Davis, Muriam Haleh; Serres, Thomas (2018-02-22). North Africa and the Making of Europe: Governance, Institutions and Culture. Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 202. ISBN 978-1-350-02184-6. The verb 'to burn' in Arabic can mean to free ride', 'to jump a queue' or to run a light'.
  18. Papadopoulou-Kourkoula, A. (2008-10-01). Transit Migration: The Missing Link Between Emigration and Settlement. Springer. p. 93. ISBN 978-0-230-58380-1. It is striking that the Maghrebi attempting to cross the sea to Europe ('el harga' or 'harraga' as they are commonly called in Algeria and Tunisia, literally meaning the 'burned'/ burning') are not necessarily the poorest or least educated. Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria, in particular, show great concern about this irregular emigration of their own nationals. This is also reflected in the way migration is debated with European counterparts. Asking for visa facilitation, for example, is the most common request in exchange for cooperation in border control and migration management. … Hence, there are two types of transit migrants in North Africa: sub- Saharan Africans travelling through North Africa with the hope of crossing to Europe, and Tunisians, Moroccans and Algerians leaving either from their own country, or moving to the neighbouring country in order to cross to Europe. … Nevertheless, migrants may move and stay in the other countries as undocumented.
  19. fr:Harraga, Retrieved 10 February 2011
  20. "Maghreb nationals among harragas caught in Malta". United States Africa Command. 2009-02-02. Retrieved 10 February 2011.
  21. es:Patera, Retrieved 10 February 2011
  22. "Movie: Director Moussa Haddad starts shooting Harraga Blues". 06-02-2011. El Moujahid. Retrieved 10 February 2011.
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