Research Institute for Social Sciences

I am working on environment-induced migration, sea mobility and maritime border experiences. My research looks at the connections between the Senegalese fishing crisis and the growing sea mobility of local fishermen: in particular, it explores their migration at the sub-regional level and examines the illegal maritime migration routes to Europe they have been organising over the last decade. For this project, I have been carrying out in-depth field studies within local fishing communities in Senegal. This research aims to understand the meaning of these maritime border crossings, developing an interdisciplinary approach linking the concepts of human geography, politics and mobility studies to field observations.

I graduated with a Master of Geography at the University of Paris-IV /Sorbonne, France, in 2007. From 2008 to 2010, I worked as a research assistant in migration-related programs in international organisations and NGOs in Bogota, Colombia.

• Forthcoming: “Sustaining livelihoods: mobility and governance in the Senegalese Atlantic”, Hallaire, J. and D. McKay in Water Worlds, human geographies of the ocean, eds. J. Anderson and Kimberley P. Ashgate, December 2012