Sadaoui, M.E. and Azizi, S. (2026) “Navigating Borders and Screens: ICTs Practices and Digital Mimicry in the Sub-Saharan Boza Journey”, African Human Mobility Review, 12(2), pp. 30–55. doi:10.14426/dmkj2t81.
Abstract
This study addresses methodological and theoretical gaps in digital migration studies. It explores the impact of ICTs on the imaginaries and migration trajectories of undocumented sub-Saharan migrants, notably Cameroonians en route to Europe via Morocco. Drawing on an innovative hybrid, multi-situated approach that combined in-depth biographical interviews, digital narrative cartography, and virtual ethnography of a ‘boza’ Facebook group, it revealed the profoundly ambivalent role of ICTs across successive stages of the migratory journey. For undocumented migrants, these technologies serve both as empowering survival toolkits and as sources of vulnerability, while contributing to digital imaginaries that may encourage people to replicate migration patterns. The research advanced the notion of “digital migratory mimicry” as an analytical framework for understanding how idealized success narratives, circulating on social media platforms, can reinforce unrealistic aspirations and mimetic orientations toward high-risk migration. This work goes beyond rational-choice models to apprehend undocumented migration as a process intricately shaped by individual affective dynamics and collective digital practices and imaginaries, thus providing new conceptual perspectives for digital migration studies.
To read the full article, follow the link :
https://epubs.ac.za/index.php/ahmr/article/view/3470/2147
About the authors
Mouhi Eddine SADAOUI, PhD candidate, Laboratory of Sociological, Psychological and Cultural Research, Faculty of Letters and Human Sciences Mohammedia, Hassan II University of Casablanca, Mohammedia, Morocco
Souad AZIZI, Professor at Department of Sociology, Laboratory of Sociological, Psychological and Cultural Research, Faculty of Letters and Human Sciences Mohammedia, Hassan II University of Casablanca, Mohammedia, Morocco
