AEGIS ECAS 2007 - View abstract

Panel	42. Transnational spaces/cosmopolitan times: African associations in Europe
Paper ID	299
Author(s)	Riccio, Bruno
Paper	No paper submitted
Abstract	I will show the multiple organizations a migrant can be simultaneously involved in when being and acting within a transnational social field. I will describe the morphology of the associational organizations of West African migrants in Italy and the main characteristics of those translocal projects that they undertake. Beside religious organisations (Mouride dahiras; Pentecoastal churches) for both Senegalese and Ghanaians, a multiplicity of actors plays an important role in the interface with Italian institutions as well as being crucial in maintaining transnational connections with the homeland. The national associations perform an important role in helping its members to relate to Italian institutions, laws and associational structures on the one hand, and, on the other hand, to keep alive what is thought and felt as the "home" culture. These associations of foreign nationals are often shaped by migrants who are the most knowledgeable about the institutions in the receiving society: the elite who represent the foreign community only to some degree. Besides the branches of national associations in the various regions there are village and ethnic associations, which are numerous in both Ghanaian and Senegalese communities. The former tend to develop in the provinces with many migrants coming from a specific village or district. Hometown associations become involved in projects of various kinds such as construction of a well back home or collecting funds to build places of worship, schools and health centres. In the case of Senegalese, ethnic associations refer to the linguistic or ethnic minorities in Senegal who also organise themselves within the diaspora. Ghanaians too have many regional and village associations which join together in the national association when there exists a need to relate with Italian institutions, but play their own game when they have to collect funds to be sent to the local context of origin. Finally, one should note individual initiatives based on Italian associational structures which allow socially active migrants to become involved in cultural, political and economic activities, networking with the actors of the institutional system within specific localities. An example is represented by individuals who address the broader issue of citizenship for migrants to seek to empower and enhance access to social resources of migrants in general and not just Senegalese or Ghanaians. Some of these orgnisational actors embark on micro-development projects aimed at their country of origin in sub-Saharan Africa. Advocates of such cooperation stress the importance of involving institutions in both North and South, so that all are jointly engaged in an enterprise of codevelopment. What distinguishes codevelopment from the transnational activities of migrant hometown associations is the involvement of a variety of local institutions and actors ‘here’ (regional and municipal authorities, NGOs, and associations with funding from the state, or the EU), and counterparts (local authorities, NGOs, village associations etc) ‘there’, in the South. These activities may represent an original strategy signalling a refusal to break with countries of origin while seeking integration. However, ambivalence can be recorded and will be discussed in the paper.

West African Associations and “Codevelopment” in Italy