Migration infrastructures have usually been identified with stable sociomaterial arrangements controlling migration (e.g. airports and detention camps), stressing highly stratified power geometries and hierarchies. Recent debates about arrival infrastructures, however, have highlighted the informal, ephemeral and improvisational character of 'bottom-up' infrastructures. Departing from a widened understanding of infrastructure, this paper looks at migrants' businesses as urban infrastructures assembling various kinds of mobilities. In particular, we address small businesses established by Senegalese migrants in Brazil, and Brazilianowned cafés in Portugal. We approach these businesses as urban infrastructures where different forms of mobilities overlap and interact, exposing various trajectories and scales of circulation. While the businesses in Brazil cater mainly for Senegalese and other migrants' needs (money transfer, ICTs, and job offers), the Brazilian-owned coffee shops in Portugal function as sites of co-working and sociality of tourists, digital nomads, and other urban creatives. Building on ethnographic fieldwork in the cities of São Paulo and Caxias do Sul (Brazil) and in Lisbon (Portugal), this paper makes innovative connections between migration research, mobility studies and urban theory. We discuss the infrastructural production of transnational and local mobilities and how these businesses both result from and facilitate the existence of mobile lifestyles.

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Uncertainty is an essential characteristic of our lives. However, by moving from one country to another, from a familiar context to an unfamiliar one, uncertainty becomes a key element of migrants’ decisions. In times of restricted mobility regimes, migrants often do not know if they will be able to reach the desired destination. Even if they manage to do so, it is still uncertain if they will be able to fulfil their aspirations. However, uncertainty also leaves room for hope. Departing from the conceptualisation of hope as the simultaneity of both potentiality and uncertainty and from the concept of circumstantial migration, this article analyses (1) retrospectively the decision of Senegalese migrants to move to Brazil and (2) the intentions of onward migration. Based on empirical data collected through ethnographic fieldwork in four Brazilian cities, this article shows how migration as a form of social hope is redirected to new destinations and that this redirection is a consequence of circumstances and coincidences, which enable or prevent movement. Potential positive outcomes of migration outweighed negative ones, which play a minor role and hardly affect decisions to leave Senegal. However, decisions to emigrate are often based on incomplete information and ill-informed expectations regarding the circumstances at the destination and can lead to feelings of disillusion. The impact of uncertainties shows a more differentiated picture in the context of onward migration intentions. While some migrants are willing to take big risks in onward migration, others try to minimize uncertainties.

RESUMOOs últimos anos testemunharam um aumento na entrada de migrantes africanos no Brasil e na América do Sul em geral. Senegaleses e ganeses representam dois dos maiores grupos desse novo movimento migratório. A literatura sugere ser o desenvolvimento de novos corredores de migração intercontinental sul-sul, por um lado, resultado do desenvolvimento econômico e geopolítico na região; por outro, as dificuldades para entrar na Europa conduzem os africanos a buscar alternativas e expandir seu horizonte migratório para outros continentes. As dimensões espaciais e temporais da migração tornam-se cada vez mais não lineares, e a distinção entre "país de trânsito" e "de destino" fica menos evidente no contexto de mudanças rápidas e transformações globais, o que torna difícil categorizar esses fluxos. Os imigrantes recentes no Brasil devem se adaptar às mudanças das condições durante a migração; eles precisam refletir constantemente sobre as circunstâncias que encontram, identificar novas oportunidades e obstáculos, e reagir a eles. Este artigo tem o intuito de compreender como os senegaleses e ganeses navegam por estruturas em mudança durante a migração para e dentro do Brasil. Os dados foram coletados a partir de pesquisa etnográfica com realização de observação participante e relatos orais de migrantes senegaleses e ganeses nas cidades de Caxias do Sul e Passo Fundo (RS) e Criciúma (SC), que reconstruíram suas trajetórias, a importância das redes sociais e os deslocamentos dos migrantes dentro do país, evidenciando suas estratégias migratórias no território.

A growing number of studies emphasise the non-linearity of migration. Aspirations and capabilities for multinational migration often develop or change during the migration process. These dynamics have mostly been analysed with regards to movements within the European Union or to countries in the so-called ‘Global North’. This chapter aims to broaden this focus by including movements in the context of South-South migration. It discusses multinational migration by Senegalese migrants in Brazil, which is both a destination and an origin of movements that connect a variety of countries and regions. It analyses the complex trajectories of Senegalese migrants from different social and educational backgrounds and focuses on how decisions to move again from one country to another develop and which factors influence the choice of destination. Through a multi-sited qualitative case study using interview and ethnographic methods with Senegalese migrants in four Brazilian cities – São Paulo, Praia Grande, Caxias do Sul and Passo Fundo – the research examines both already-occurred movements from Cape Verde and Argentina to Brazil and aspirations to migrate further to the ‘Global North’. The findings show that these multinational migrations are mostly driven by the desire for self-improvement – financial, professional or educational – and a hierarchy of desired destinations but also a result of suddenly emerging opportunities and mediation. The movements are facilitated through the multiple transnational ties with which Senegalese migrants are connected to different places. Furthermore, the study shows how Senegalese migrants acquire new migratory capital – for example in the form of another nationality, business activities or access to new networks – and how migration experiences influence onward migration aspirations and preparations, hereby drawing attention to the active learning process which migrants experience during their trajectory.