Exploring Decision-Making Processes of Irregular Youth Migrants from West Africa to Germany through Practice Stories

I explore how young people from West Africa decide to undertake irregular migration to Europe, with a particular focus on those who reach Germany. Using a qualitative research design and grounded in Karen O'Reilly’s practice stories framework, I conducted semi-structured interviews with youth migrants to better understand their lived experiences, motivations, and constraints. I complemented their views with those of one key informant, a migration practitioner. Rather than viewing migration as a single decision or event, I conceptualise it as an ongoing social practice shaped by both internal and external structures, ranging from personal motivation and family pressure to governance drivers and restricted legal pathways (O’Reilly, 2022). I moreover use contemporary sociological framework to examine the complexity of youth migrants decision making and provide a more grounded, empathetic understanding of irregular migration. What emerges are not simple narratives with clear beginnings or ends, but complex, open-ended stories of different practices. Some may be indicative of resilience which arises when negotiating difficult migration journeys. Other practices point to adaptation challenges, difficulty handling bureaucracy in a new country and a sense of isolation. In almost all instances, these practice stories challenge linear views of migration and a rational calculus behind decision making. They converge on complexity and the entangled mix of motivations, hope and constraint. I offer no finite conclusion, only reflections informed by practice theory and a call to remain attentive to the lived realities of youth migrants. Their journeys carry multiple meanings across the desert, sea, and the borders. I am hopeful that the theoretical approach to empirical data I gathered, despite inherent limitations, may offer some new angles on established insights in the study of irregular migration. I also offer tentative recommendations for the consideration of policymakers in Africa and Europe. They converge on the need to take seriously the voices and experiences of young migrants when designing "interventions". However, further research using diverse and contextualised tools and theories is needed to support grounded and context-specific policy responses. The ultimate aim of research and policy-making is to avoid the preventable loss of life that all too frequently occurs when young West Africans set out toward Europe, with full awareness of the risks.