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Sub-Saharan African migration towards the European Union (EU) belongs to one of the most stigmatized forms of migration of the 21 st century. It is strongly characterized by EU's restrictive migration policies. As a consequence, migrants who are aspiring to reach the EU often undertake fragmented and dangerous journeys to the North. This contribution attempts to gain more empirical insights into these migratory journeys. It is based on a 'trajectory ethnography' that combines in-depth interviews with sub-Saharan Africans, who are waiting in Morocco and Turkey to enter the EU, with a longitudinal strategy to follow some of these respondents over longer periods of time. With this longitudinal element I was in particular able to grasp expected steps and unexpected turns in individual migration trajectories. By discussing three main components (the motivation, facilitation and velocity) of journeys, this contribution puts into perspective the unidirectional and often frictionless metaphors of migration-as if migrants move like 'flows' and 'waves'.

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As a welcome alternative to economic explanations of migration, the social network has become a key concept in migration studies. However, by maintaining a static conceptualisation of networks (as grid‐like structures) and by suggesting that social capital automatically derives from networks, we tend to fall into a form of network determinism. As an alternative, this paper makes the case for a practice approach to social networks that recognise the changeable nature of networks and the social endeavours that are needed to accumulate social capital. In so doing, I first revisit the work of Granovetter and Bourdieu in order to explore existing practice elements in their network approaches. I subsequently combine these insights with practice‐oriented migration studies. This analysis results in four hitherto undertheorised elements that provide a foundation for the advocated networking approach. Finally, I illustrate the analytical value of this approach by discussing the networking practices of sub‐Saharan African migrants en route for the European Union. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.