EPDF and EPUB available Open Access under CC-BY-NC-ND. Amid the heavy politicisation and problematisation of male migrants in Europe, this ethnographic study casts new light on their experiences, struggles and everyday resistance. The author follows the journeys of those who seek, but have little hope of achieving, permanent residence status in European countries, tracking their successive migrations, detentions and deportations within and beyond the continent. She explores migrants’ tactics, the impact of precarity on their lives and the dual feelings of enduring hope and powerless vulnerability they experience. This is a sensitive and insightful analysis of how the European migration regime shapes, and is shaped by, migrants’ practices.