Before we started the trip, I imagined the movement from Senegal to Europe to be one-directional. I was surprised at how many people in Senegal either had work visas that allowed them to go back and forth, or had spent time in Spain before being deported. To Senegalese people we met, Spain was not some distant unreachable land of their imagination. Folks in Senegal were surrounded by people who'd been to Spain. Some had built very good lives for themselves there; others struggled before being forced to leave; and some even came home because they decided that life in West Africa is better than in Europe, despite the challenges.