• Cover • Contents • Acknowledgements • Chapter One: Introduction • An African in Paris or the Right to Have Rights • Why Congo? • Core Work and Methodology: Following the People, Following the Stories • History of Congo • New Christian Revival in Congo • Congolese Migration • European Migration Politics and Its Effects on the African Continent • Congolese Mobility in the Face of a Postcolonial Mobility Order • Overview of the Chapters • Chapter Two: Students, Adventurers, and Traders: Migration, Religion, and the Aspirations of Congolese Migrants in Ghana • Sunday Morning at La Belle glise • Religious Mobilities • People as Infrastructure • Arrival, Settlement, and the Desire to Leaving Ghana for Greener Pastures • Congolese Students in Ghana • "Having Tasted the Spirit of Migrating" • Remaining in Accra • The Adventurer • The Church as a Catalyst for Mobility • Chapter Three: At Home in the Liminal State: Aspiration, Constraints, and Community Organizing among Congolese Migrants in Egypt • Navigating Liminality in Egypt3 • Congolese in Egypt • Shifting Legal Uncertainties and Temporary Prospects • Coming to Not Stay • Studying and Working in a Call Center • "Ici, Faisal, nous, les noir Africaines, sommes entre nous" • "God and the Church Protect Me:" Handling Uncertain Liminality • Establishing in Liminality • Chapter Four: Sacred Spaces and Survival Networks: The glise Charit and Congolese Life in Istanbul • Congolese in Istanbul • L'glise Charit • A Spiritual Entrepreneur: Pastor Alain Suku's Journey • Religious Minority Status and Community Formation • Maria Mbokani: Pursuing Education Elsewhere • Clothilde Makondele: On the Way Towards Paris • Paul Watshienda: Navigating Persecution and Displacement • Conclusion • Chapter Five: Guangzhou: Going East • New Donfranc Hotel • Recent African Migration towards Guangzhou • Congolese "Placemaking" • Congolese Life in Guangzhou • Bar Africaine • L'glise de la Lumire • Female Traders: Survival, Extra Income, Aspirations, and Ambitions • "Les vraies copies" • Trade as a Way to Explore the World • Global Traders • Chapter Six: Rio de Janeiro: From Transit to Arrival: La Sape, Music, and Political Mobilization • Should I Stay or Should I Go? • The Congolese Communities in Rio de Janeiro: Migration Trajectories • Navigating Urban Spaces: Congolese Migrants in Rio's Favelas and Beyond • God, Music, and the Journey? • Dad's Barber Shop • La Sape • Music is the Place to Be! • The Case of Mose Kabagambe and Its Aftermath • Continuing the Journey Sometime Soon? • Chapter Seven: Waiting in Motion: Navigating Obstacles and Uncertainty on the Path to the Global North • Clothilde Makonde: Finally Arriving in Europe! • Paul Watsienda: "Mon Dublin est Finit!" • Wiz Dogwolf Makabin: Fragmented Trajectories and Persistent Mobility • Chadrack Kembilu: Partir l'Aventure • Beyond Borders: Alternative Geographies of Congolese Mobilities and Informal Infrastructures • Conclusion • Emerging Congolese Diaspora in the Global South • Beyond North South Binaries: Implications for Migration Studies and Policy • Toward a Decolonial Migration Studies • Notes • BibliographyCongolese migrants’ lived experiences through a focus on South–South mobility.Southern Routes draws on more than a decade of multi-sited ethnographic research of the Congolese diaspora, following migrants through various southern metropolises, including Accra, Cairo, Istanbul, Guangzhou and Rio de Janeiro. Centering migrants’ everyday experiences and narratives, the book traces the diverse journeys through which they navigate transnational, diasporic, and religious networks in pursuit of better lives. It highlights migrants’ agency, aspirations, risks and strategies as they contend with tightly controlled global migration regimes, foregrounding individual life trajectories often absent from the scholarly literature.In a notable departure from most migration studies, the book emphasizes Congolese migration within global South cities, revealing interconnections shaped by family, kinship, religion, trade, and education, while also considering cases of onward travel to Europe and North America. In doing so, it examines how migrants confront securitized visa and border systems. Southern Routes offers original, grounded insights into contemporary African migration movements and the dynamics of transnational urban life.Southern Routes draws on more than a decade of multi-sited ethnographic research of the Congolese diaspora, following migrants through various southern metropolises, including Accra, Cairo, Istanbul, Guangzhou and Rio de Janeiro. Centering migrants’ everyday experiences and narratives, the book traces the diverse journeys through which they navigate transnational, diasporic, and religious networks in pursuit of better lives. It highlights migrants’ agency, aspirations, risks and strategies as they contend with tightly controlled global migration regimes, foregrounding individual life trajectories often absent from the scholarly literature.In a notable departure from most migration studies, the book emphasizes Congolese migration within global South cities, revealing interconnections shaped by family, kinship, religion, trade, and education, while also considering cases of onward travel to Europe and North America. In doing so, it examines how migrants confront securitized visa and border systems. Southern Routes offers original, grounded insights into contemporary African migration movements and the dynamics of transnational urban life.