Senegal in Argentina

Due to the EU and USA’s restrictive migration policies, Senegalese migrants sometimes seek ‘greener pastures’ in Latin America. Contemporary Senegalese migration to Argentina started around 1999 - 2000. The main goal is often finding better economic opportunities and helping their families back in Senegal. For most of them working on the streets, as peddlers, is the only choice. The vast majority of these migrants lack legal permission for work, and selling on the streets it’s banned. These situations lead to daily struggles with police, which often end up in episodes of racism, physical and verbal violence and the loss of Senegalese people’s only source of income.

My relationship with Senegalese migrants started in mid-2012 while attending the first year of my Bachelor's degree in Sociology in the city of La Plata, Argentina. Reading news about police abuses towards Senegalese people was quite usual. As some of them used to work next to my university, I realized many of them didn’t speak Spanish. In an attempt to empower them, two friends and I decided to start giving free Spanish lessons to any Senegalese who wanted to sign up. I spent more than six years as a Spanish teacher, as an activist, as a researcher and as a friend among the Senegalese community in Argentina.

In this photographic work, I attempt to counter back main media’s narratives of criminalization and victimization of the Senegalese population in Argentina by not showing them in a precarious situation but rather during moments of joy and dignity.