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Tens of thousands of Eritreans make perilous voyages across Africa and the Mediterranean Sea every year. Why do they risk their lives to reach European countries where so many more hardships await them? By visiting family homes in Eritrea and living with refugees in camps and urban peripheries across Ethiopia, Sudan, and Italy, Milena Belloni untangles the reasons behind one of the most under-researched refugee populations today. Balancing encounters with refugees and their families, smugglers, and visa officers, The Big Gamble contributes to ongoing debates about blurred boundaries between forced and voluntary migration, the complications of transnational marriages, the social matrix of smuggling, and the role of family expectations, emotions, and values in migrants’ choices of destinations.

About the Author

Milena Belloni is a sociologist at the University of Antwerp. Her doctoral research on Eritrean migration received the 2016 IMISCOE Award. Belloni has published in the Journal of Refugee Studies and the Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies.

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"The book is not only a joy to read but has also a very original research design, but it is a must-read for those who study migration motivations."
— International Migration

"Belloni’s book offers an incredibly rich and insightful analysis, highlighting the importance of analysing migration as a cumulative process, rather than a one-off decision."
— Ethnic and Racial Studies

"The Big Gamble contributes to critical approaches to the study of contemporary human mobility."
— Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute

"The Big Gamble is a monumental and perceptive story of migration. It takes the reader on a journey not just from Africa to Europe, but through reflections on moralities, risk and trust, that are central to contemporary mobility and immobility. Belloni’s account of Eritrean migration experiences is powered by formidable fieldwork and written with warmth and wisdom."—Jørgen Carling, Peace Research Institute Oslo

"Belloni's engrossing ethnography—carried out across time, space, and place—is particularly commendable because of her scholarly commitment to 'getting things right.' The Eritrean women and men whose lives provided its empirical ground will see their pain, joy, and contradictions reflected back at them. This is scholar activism at its finest."—Laura Bisaillon, Professor of Health and Society, University of Toronto Scarborough

"The Big Gamble is a study of a migrant group that has received very little scholarly attention. Its focus on the Eritrea to Europe corridor is a novel approach, and Milena Belloni has produced a compelling and courageous account.”—Peter Kivisto, Augustana College and University of Helsinki

Awards

ENMISA Distinguished Book Award Honorable Mention 2021 2020, International Studies Association - ENMISA Section
2020 ISA RC31 Award for Best Book Honorable Mention 2021, International Studies Association RC31

About the Book