The ‘traditional maps’ showing migration flows are spread by mass media and institutional channels reaching public opinion. Choosing specific symbols and cartographic variables lead to a simplification of the migratory experience and a de-humanisation of migrant people. Sensitive and participative cartography, focusing on individual experiences, can have positive effects both on the addressee/reader and the author of a map. Within this theoretical framework this paper presents an analysis and a comparison between ‘traditional’ geographical maps and sensitive and subjective cartographies produced by some migrant guys, showing different cartographic points of view of the contemporary migratory routes from sub-Saharan Africa to Europe.
Keywords: Migrations, sensitive cartography, sub-Saharan Africa.