Child Migration in Africa

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Child Migration in Africa
By Iman Hashim, Dorte Thorsen Zed Books LtdCopyright © 2011 Iman Hashim and Dorte Thorsen
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-84813-455-3


Contents
Maps, vi,
Preface, vii,
1 Introduction: interrogating childhood and migration, 1,
2 Contexts of migration, 20,
3 Choosing to move: the reasons for rural children's migration, 42,
4 Journeys and arrivals: introductions to new social worlds, 65,
5 Navigating migrant life: processes of constructing identities, 85,
6 Moving on, 111,
Notes, 128,
Bibliography, 132,
Index, 145,

CHAPTER 1
Introduction: interrogating childhood and migration

'We discovered yet another child today who had not appeared during the first household survey. She is the daughter of the household head's daughter and had been staying with her paternal grandparents while her parents were working in the south. They had both since died so her maternal grandfather decided to bring her to live with him until her parents' return, as there were only the father's brothers left in the house and he was concerned that they wouldn't care properly for her. Moving on to the next house we discovered that Laadi [aged seventeen] was back from Kumasi but her brother Moses [aged fourteen] was not, and nor will he come soon. [...] She has been helping her aunt with her catering business as well as hawking oranges. Moses, she thinks, is working on contract for a cocoa farmer.' (Field notes from Ghana, 7 February 2001)
'I approached the village imam specifically to ask about his daughter, Yarassou, as I remembered her mother telling me in 2002 that despite the fact she had not yet reached school age, Yarassou had started school the previous year. One of the school teachers in the village loved the child and had asked for her when she was posted in a rural town some 55 miles away. As the imam and I were chatting about children, family relations and, of course, Yarassou, I learned that she had only stayed with the teacher two years before her father brought her back. In his view, Yarassou was helping the teacher and had not left because of schooling. At one point, someone had sent a message to let him know that his daughter was not treated well. The problem was that Yarassou did not always do the work required of her, the teacher then tried to force her and after that, she beat her severely. After hearing this, he waited until the school holidays because he did not want to disrupt Yarassou's schooling and then went to see the teacher and, anxious not to anger her, reclaimed the child by explaining that her mother needed her help after having given birth. As soon as she was back in the village, he enrolled her in school.' (Field notes from Burkina Faso, 16 February 2005)

This book addresses children's migration independently of their birth parents. The extracts from our field diaries give an indication of the extent to which children in rural West Africa do move around independently of their birth parents. Some move to help out in the household or on the farm of the person to whom they move and/or to learn a trade, go to school or pursue other forms of learning, such as apprenticeships. Others move to find paid work – in other words, they become labour migrants. Another point both diary extracts illustrate is that children's movements are not necessarily due to parental neglect. In the West African context, parents and grandparents worry about children's immediate and future welfare, and encourage moves they believe will benefit the child, whether the moves are away from them or bring children into their protection and care. Moving about has long been central to West Africans' welfare strategies, especially those of the poor, but the frequency and normality of such strategies can be difficult to grasp when one is from a society where individuals' lifestyles are more sedentary. Similarly, strongly held preconceptions of childhood and the appropriate relationsh