Feature: The Migrants Who Make It
For survivors of the long, dangerous journey across the Mediterranean, the promised land often isn’t all that it once seemed.
For migrants coming from broken lands to the south and east of Europe, the allure of a better life is a powerful thing. No migrant embarks on the journey to Europe ignorant of its dangers — more than 1,500 people have died trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea so far this year, approximately 1,100 of them in the past horrifying week — but many do so armed with hope for what will be waiting for them on the other side: a safer, more stable existence. Some people, particularly those who continue north after their arrival, making it to countries such as Sweden and Denmark, manage to find this dream. Many, however, do not.
For Lamin, a migrant from The Gambia, the promise of Europe has fallen short. Lamin arrived on the continent in October 2012, having survived the journey from Libya. But he made the mistake of registering for asylum in Italy, a country ill-equipped to handle the flood of poor migrants landing on its shores. Shortly after receiving his asylum papers, Lamin was kicked out of government-provided housing; he has spent the last nine months homeless, and now lives in an abandoned building in Rome. “My life seems broken now,” he says.
Ishmael, from Senegal (pictured above), is still waiting for asylum. In his government-run house in Rome, he watches a pot of water boil for tea. "My day is just waiting,” he says. “All I do now is wait." But even those who do receive asylum often find themselves, like Lamin, lost in a strange land with few prospects. Maddo, also from Senegal, sleeps in an abandoned factory, with other homeless migrants. "I thought if I come to Italy, life will be better," he says. "But it is not better here. My life is worse."
Photographer Mackenzie Knowles-Coursin spent weeks on the road in Europe with the men — they are almost always men — who left home on a journey many don’t survive. Some have fared well, finding good homes in northern countries, and have plans to bring their familes to join them; others, like Lamin and Maddo, tell tales of broken dreams and bureaucratic nightmares. And yet even so, these are still the lucky ones: the migrants who make it.
All photographs by Mackenzie Knowles-Coursin
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