By Ricky Peters
When young Africans risk their lives on the backway—crossing deserts, detention camps, and the Mediterranean—it is often judged from a Western perspective as reckless, irrational, or irresponsible. Critics ask: Why would anyone choose such danger?
But this question already assumes a level of safety, choice, and future orientation that many people living in deep poverty simply do not have.
To understand the backway tragedy, we must look deeper than headlines or moral judgment. We must look at poverty as a psychological condition, not just an economic one. From within prolonged scarcity and misery, risk is perceived differently, hope operates differently, and the future is imagined differently. What appears irrational from the outside can be psychologically rational from within survival. Let me explain that inner reality.
Psychology of poverty
Poverty is often discussed in terms of lack of income, unemployment, or insufficient resources. However, beyond the economic dimension lies a deeper and less visible reality: the psychology of poverty. This refers to the mental, emotional, and behavioral patterns shaped by prolonged exposure to scarcity, insecurity, and social exclusion. Understanding this psychological dimension is essential for addressing poverty in a sustainable and humane way.
Scarcity and mental bandwidth
One of the most powerful psychological effects of poverty is the constant experience and mental pressure of scarcity. When individuals are preoccupied with meeting basic needs such as food, rent, school fees, or medical expenses, their mental bandwidth becomes consumed by immediate survival concerns. This chronic stress reduces cognitive capacity, making it harder to plan, make long-term decisions, or take calculated risks. Poverty, therefore, does not reflect poor decision-making alone; it actively impairs decision-making.
Learned helplessness and loss of agency
Long-term poverty can foster a sense of helplessness. Repeated experiences of failure, rejection, or systemic barriers may lead individuals to believe that their efforts will not change their circumstances. This psychological state, known as learned helplessness, discourages initiative and reinforces passivity. Over time, people may stop trying not because they lack ambition, but because they no longer believe their actions matter.
Short-term thinking and survival mode
Poverty often forces people into short-term thinking. When tomorrow’s meal is uncertain, long-term goals such as education, savings, or investment feel distant and unrealistic. This survival mode prioritises immediate relief over future benefit. While such behavior is frequently criticised, it is a rational psychological response to instability and uncertainty, not a moral failing.
This is where the backway becomes psychologically understandable.
When the present offers no viable path forward, the future—even if dangerous—can feel like the only option. The risk of dying “on the way” may feel no worse than the certainty of being stuck indefinitely.
Shame, stigma, and identity
The social stigma attached to poverty deeply affects self-esteem and identity. Individuals living in poverty are often blamed for their situation, labeled as lazy, irresponsible, or incompetent. Internalising these judgments can result in shame, social withdrawal, and low self-worth. When people begin to see poverty as part of their identity rather than a condition, it becomes psychologically harder to imagine or pursue a different future.
Intergenerational transmission
The psychology of poverty is often passed from one generation to the next. Children raised in environments of scarcity may absorb limiting beliefs about money, success, and opportunity. Exposure to chronic stress in early life can also affect emotional regulation, confidence, and educational outcomes. Without intervention, these psychological patterns can perpetuate cycles of poverty even when opportunities arise.
The role of systems and structures
It is critical to recognise that the psychology of poverty does not develop in isolation. It is shaped by unequal systems, limited access to quality education, healthcare, and fair employment, as well as by corruption, selective justice, and discrimination. Psychological resilience alone cannot overcome structural injustice. Addressing poverty requires changing both mindsets and the conditions that reinforce them.
Breaking the cycle
Combating the psychology of poverty requires more than financial aid. It demands dignity-centered policies, access to education, mental health support, financial literacy, and empowerment initiatives that restore a sense of agency. When people are given stable environments, fair opportunities, and respect, their thinking shifts from survival to growth.
In this context – and given the high number of fatalities along the backway – it is high time that African governments begin to view the issue in a different light. If there is a genuine desire to address the massive outflow of young people, who represent the future and the continent’s intellectual capital, focusing solely on arresting migrants and human traffickers makes little sense. Such an approach completely ignores the real question of why so many young people want to leave in the first place. The answer lies with their own governments and their mismanagement. But these kind of real questions are nowhere to be seen yet.
Conclusion
The psychology of poverty reveals that poverty is not just an economic state but a mental and emotional burden. To truly fight poverty, societies must move beyond blaming individuals and instead address the invisible psychological wounds caused by scarcity and exclusion. Only by healing both the mind and the system can lasting change be achieved.
Final understanding (for Western readers)
Western critics often judge the backway from a position of safety, choice, and long-term stability. Those conditions fundamentally change how risk is perceived. When life already feels like a dead end, danger does not look the same. It really is that simple — and that tragic.
Understanding is not approval.
Empathy is not endorsement.
But without understanding the psychology of poverty, condemnation will always miss the point—and the tragedies will continue.
