African Migrations: Patterns and Perspectives

Description

Spurred by major changes in the world economy and in local ecology, the contemporary migration of Africans, both within the continent and to various destinations in Europe and North America, has seriously affected thousands of lives and livelihoods. The contributors to this volume, reflecting a variety of disciplinary perspectives, examine the causes and consequences of this new migration. The essays cover topics such as rural-urban migration into African cities, transnational migration, and the experience of immigrants abroad, as well as the issues surrounding migrant identity and how Africans re-create community and strive to maintain ethnic, gender, national, and religious ties to their former homes. “Reflecting a variety of disciplinary perspectives, African Migrations examine the causes and consequences of contemporary migration spurred by major changes in the world economy and in local ecology, both within the African continent and to various destinations in Europe and North America.” “Population movements have been one of the most important social processes unfolding on the African continent over the past century.” — Michael Lambert, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill “[Explores] new terrain and [gives] nuance to our understanding of African migrations and the African Diaspora.56.1 March 2015” — Journal of African History “[T]he theoretical insights coupled with a strong selection of empirical case studies make overall for an informative and enjoyable read. ” — African Affairs “The 14 engaging case studies assembled here add to understanding the social processes of voluntary and forced displacement within the continent and across the seas. . . . Recommended.” — Choice Acknowledgements Introduction: African Patterns of Migration in a Global Era: New Perspectives Abdoulaye Kane and Todd H. Leedy Part I. Psychological, Socio-cultural and Political Dimensions of African Migration 1. Overcoming the Economistic Fallacy: Social Determinants of Voluntary Migration from the Sahel to the Congo Basin Bruce Whitehouse 2. Migration as Coping with Risk: African Migrants' Conception of Being far from Home and States' Policy of Barriers Isaie Dougnon 3. Navigating Diaspora: The Precarious Depths of the Italian Immigration Crisis Donald Carter 4. Historic Changes Underway in African Migration Policies: From Muddling Through to Organized Brain Circulation Rubin Patterson Part II. Translocal and Transnational Connections: Between Belonging and Exclusion 5. Belonging amidst Shifting Sands: Insertion, Self-exclusion, and the Remaking of African Urbanism Loren Landau 6. Securing Wealth, Managing Social Relations: Rural-urban Migration and the Moral Politics of Reciprocity, Gender, and Belonging in Neoliberal Tanzania Hansjoerg Dilger 7. Voluntary and Involuntary Homebodies: Adaptations and Lived Experiences of Hausa Left Behind in Niamey, Niger Scott Youngstedt 8. Strangers are like the Mist: Language in the Push and Pull of the African Diaspora Paul Stoller 9. Towards a Christian Disneyland? Negotiating Space and Identity in the New African Religious Diaspora Afe Adogame 10. Somali Assistance Networks: the Social Dynamics of Sending Remittances Cindy Horst Part III. Feminization of Migration and the Appearance of Diasporic Identities 11. The Feminization of Asylum Migration from Africa: Problems and Perspectives Jane Freedman 12. Migration as Factor of Cultural Change Abroad and at Home: Senegalese Female Hair Braiders in the United States Cheikh Anta Babou 13. What the General of Amadou Bamba saw in New York City: Gendered Displays of Devotion among Migrants of the Senegalese Murid Ta