‘I wish I had listened and not come to South Africa’: fantasies, expectations and trajectories of migration among Ethiopian unaccompanied child migrants into South Africa

Migration studies often focus on the socio-political and economic factors that drive people to migrate, overlooking the fantasies and processes involved in actualising the journey. This paper examines unaccompanied Ethiopian child migrants in South Africa, using the concept of fantasy to understand the preparatory processes of migration and their realisation. It argues that fantasies of future expectations and self-enhancement propel individuals into virtual fantasy worlds that can lead to physical migration. This study contributes to the migration literature by exploring the fruitful yet limited role of fantasies and expectations in the complex and multi-phased phenomenon of migration.