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AEGIS European Conference on African Studies
11 - 14 July 2007
African Studies Centre, Leiden, The Netherlands
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Migration as Discursive Space – Negotiations of Leaving and Returning of Young migrants in Southern Burkina Faso
| Panel |
28. Generations of Migrants in West Africa
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| Paper ID | 241 |
| Author(s) |
Hahn, Hans Peter
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| Paper |
No paper submitted
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| Abstract | In contrast to widespread assumptions that migration is a reaction to a deficit on the society of origin I will understand migration as an embedded part of the local society, where it is a field of ideas, actions, and negotiations. Migration in southern Burkina Faso is not something threatening the local society or destroying the social order, but an institution that is grown out of the local history and which has dealt with migration since almost a century. Migratory phenomena in the context of the case study in the village of Kollo (Province du Nahouri) are as diverse as it is possible, sojourns abroad (in Ghana or in Côte d’Ivoire) range from a few weeks to more than a decade and working there may take place in urban contexts or on plantations. Remittances vary from almost nothing to several hundreds of thousands of Francs CFA.
But in spite of the variety of migration patterns, at the place or origin there is a common notion about what the migrant should do, and what is necessary in order to return as a successful migrant. Each single migratory process is discussed with the relatives and in the village’s public sphere. Particular decisions of the migrant, his acting and his destinies are judged, in accordance to a local conception about migration. In this context, economic wealth is not the only criteria applied, and many ex-migrants who successfully re-integrated into the local society show a life that does not differ from those, who never left the village for a long time.
Migration is mainly regarded as a biographic phase; it offers an opportunity for youngsters to prove their value and to acquire experiences during the stay abroad. Young migrants do not always receive the permission to leave from their parents, but this particular kind of conflict is something well known by the village community. Everybody will advice the angry parents to wait for the day when their youngster returns. If only he brings some money or goods, his misbehaviour will be apologized.
The discourse about the young people leaving (and hopefully returning) is focussed on the necessity for the boys and girls to learn about the countries in the South, in the Coastal zone of West Africa and about the Lifestyles there. Parents assure, that even if their children will not earn much money, this period in their life will be valuable for the experiences they made over there. As the months or years in Ghana or Côte d’Ivoire have become a part of the biographies of the majority of the people in the village, those experiences and the knowledge about how life is in the South is considered as part of the local culture. Thus, migration is not weakening the local society but, instead a strategy to complement the space where this society and its members are located.
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