In Burkina Faso, as in other Sahelian countries, the “idleness” of pastoralist youth along with climate change and scarcity of natural resources is cited by policymakers as a major driver of migration and violence. In order to move beyond these normative views, we have recently conducted a study in Burkina Faso focusing on the migratory networks of young pastoralists and the perceptions of a set of institutional actors. While “conflict-oriented” narratives ignore the structural changes occurring in pastoral societies, our results highlight a set of multidimensional and long-term processes excluding pastoralists from land access and participation in politics. Access to adult status is often no longer granted solely by the transfer of cattle rights. Youth mobility patterns reveal that pastoral families need both pastoral mobility and territorial anchoring. Urban dwellers acting as brokers could reinforce access to pastoral resources, basic services and citizenship rights. This could help to renew the relationships with the state and its representatives in rural areas as a possible solution to discrimination against and mistreatment of pastoralists. We propose to discuss the relations between institutional discourses on conflicts, migration and climate change – and the projects and policies that embody them – and the dynamics of social change in pastoral societies in a context of “crisis governance”. Our analysis underlines the urgency of deconstructing the global narratives underpinning a security context which jeopardizes young people's mobility and compromises both their social integration, and the chances of achieving a political solution to the spread of armed insurgencies.