AEGIS ECAS 2007 - View abstract

Panel	28. Generations of Migrants in West Africa
Paper ID	432
Author(s)	Bjarnesen, Jesper
Paper	View papers (PDF)
Abstract	Adama has lost both his parents. He his now 36 years old and the head of household in the house his parents left him, with the responsibility for his four younger siblings. Two years ago he married Awa who also lives in the small house in Gueule Tapée – a calm residential neighbourhood facing the sea on the northern fringes of Dakar. Adama once spent most of his time and effort on attaining a forged visa to a European country. He did it for his family; because he saw no other way of securing an income that would provide for his siblings. But he failed. He was deceived by the middleman and lost more than one million CFA (appr. 1.500 €), an amount that would have provided for his family a long time, he now tells me with an embarrassed smile. This paper is based on five month ethnographic fieldwork in Dakar, Senegal, in the first half of 2006. Through the exploration of Adama’s story I show how emigration figures as one of three predominant strategies among young men in Dakar for securing the social position that will enable them to settle as adults. In deteriorating socio-economic circumstances, Adama and his peers are forced to negotiate new understandings of what it means to be successful and what it means to become an adult – a difficult navigation between the norms and ideals of both parents and peers. Besides emigration, spirituality – most often in the form of adherence to one of the many influential sufi orders in the city – has become another strategy for gaining a respected social position. After his failed attempts at emigration, Adama has become deeply involved with such a group and this has earned him respect among his peers in Gueule Tapée as well as in the eyes of the older generation. The third predominant strategy may seem more straightforward; finding a steady employment with a salary that enables a man to provide for his own household. The tragic death of Adama’s parents tumbled him in to the role as head of household almost from one day to the other. He has since then been able to establish himself as carpenter and makes a decent living off his craft. Since Adama has achieved a position as a respected Muslim and a head of household with a steady income through a respected craft, his position as a mature adult seems a matter of fact to many of his less fortunate, or resourceful, peers. But Adama does not see it that way. He still dreams of new strategies for attaining a visa to Europe and sees his predicament as still being caught in the category of youth. The paper challenges current migration theories to move beyond simplistic ideas of “push and pull” factors, to acknowledge that young people outside the West possess the same capacities to aspire; that more is at stake than simply “coping strategies” even for the less privileged in this world.

"Barca ou Barzakhe - Barcelona or Death"? Negotiating a Path to Adulthood in Dakar