Africa on the Move: Migration, Translocal Livelihoods and Rural Development in Sub-Saharan Africa

241 Pages·2020·4.985 MB·English

by  Malte Steinbrink, Hannah Niedenführ

Springer Geography
Malte Steinbrink
Hannah Niedenführ
Africa on
the Move
Migration, Translocal Livelihoods and
Rural Development in Sub-Saharan
Africa
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ü
Malte Steinbrink Hannah Niedenf hr
(cid:129)
Africa on the Move
Migration, Translocal Livelihoods and Rural
Development in Sub-Saharan Africa
123
Malte Steinbrink Hannah Niedenführ
Geography Institute for Migration Research
University of Passau andIntercultural Studies
Passau, Bayern,Germany University of Osnabrück
Osnabrück, Niedersachsen,Germany
Translated byShelby Long
ISSN 2194-315X ISSN 2194-3168 (electronic)
SpringerGeography
ISBN978-3-030-22840-8 ISBN978-3-030-22841-5 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-22841-5
TranslationfromtheGermanlanguageedition:AfrikainBewegung:TranslokaleLivelihoodsundländliche
EntwicklunginSubsahara-Afrika©2017.Publishedbytranscript.AllRightsReserved.
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Acknowledgements
Our gratitude goes first to Shelby Long, University of Osnabrück, for her concise
interpretation of this book. Thank you Shelby, for your patience, flexibility, and
friendliness—it was a joy to work with you! We would like to thank the team of the
project “Towards Inclusive and Sustainable Rural Transformation in Sub-Sahara
Africa”attheCentreforRuralDevelopment(SLE)atHumboldtUniversityBerlin,and
especially Dr. Susanne Neubert and Dr. Gabriele Beckmann for their helpful sug-
gestions. We would also like to thank Erwin Vogl, Geography Department of the
University of Passau, for his professional support in creating the figures. In addition,
we would like to thank our editor at Springer Nature, Prof. Dr. Michael Leuchner, as
well as Mr. Rajan Muthu, for their support in the process of publishing. Also, many
thankstoProf.Dr.ChrisRogerson,UniversityofJohannesburg,forencouragingusto
write this book.
Finally, many thanks to our families, partners, and friends for their local and
translocal “informal support” that made this book possible—A strong network truly
helps!
v
Contents
1 Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
References. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
2 Time for a Rethink . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
2.1 Research on Migration and Development: Caught
in Two Traps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
2.1.1 The Ideological Trap. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2.1.2 The Territorial Trap . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
2.1.3 Impulses from International Migration Studies
and Development Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
2.2 The Limits of Rural/Urban Thinking. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
2.2.1 Rural/Urban Thinking in Development Theory:
Dualistic Spatializations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
2.2.2 Rural/Urban Thinking in Development Politics:
Dualistic Persistences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
2.3 Translocal Perspectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
References. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
3 Translocal Livelihoods: New Perspectives in Livelihood
Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
3.1 Translocalizing the Livelihood Perspective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
3.2 Methodological Implications. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
3.2.1 Translocal Social Space. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
3.2.2 Translocal Community . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
3.2.3 The Translocal Household. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
3.2.4 A Bi- or Multilocal Research Approach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
References. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
4 Vulnerability and Translocality: Why Livelihoods Become
Translocal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
4.1 Translocal Structuration: Translocality as Consequence
and Condition of Livelihood Agency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
vii
viii Contents
4.2 Translocalization in the Context of Social Vulnerability. . . . . . . . . . . 56
4.2.1 Economic Diversification, Vulnerability and Translocality. . . . 61
4.2.2 Migration, Vulnerability and Translocality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
4.2.3 Social Networks, Vulnerability and Translocality . . . . . . . . . . 71
References. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
5 Translocal Livelihoods in Sub-Saharan Africa. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
5.1 Urbanization in Africa: “Urbanization Without Growth
But with Translocalization” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
5.2 An Attempt at Quantitative Estimation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
5.3 Translocal Patterns. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
5.3.1 Spatial Patterns. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
5.3.2 Temporal Patterns. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
5.3.3 A Phase Model of Translocalization: “From Expanders
to Transmigrants”. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
5.3.4 Socioeconomic Patterns: “Who Stays, Who Leaves,
Who Returns?”. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
5.3.5 Communication Patterns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
References. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
6 Effects of Translocal Livelihoods on Rural Change . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
6.1 Economic Dimensions of Translocal Livelihoods. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
6.1.1 Remittances . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
6.1.2 Workforce and Workload . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
6.1.3 Innovation and Knowledge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
6.2 Ecological Dimensions of Translocal Livelihoods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
6.3 Social Dimensions of Translocal Livelihoods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170
6.3.1 Education. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
6.3.2 Gender. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
6.3.3 Health . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
References. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206
7 Translocal Development?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219
7.1 Translocal Livelihoods and the Persistence of Inequality . . . . . . . . . . 222
7.2 Translocal Livelihoods as a Temporally Stable Phenomenon . . . . . . . 225
7.3 Plea for a Translocal Awareness in Development Planning . . . . . . . . 227
References. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229
Index... .... .... .... .... .... ..... .... .... .... .... .... ..... .... 231
About the Authors
Prof.Dr.phil.habil.MalteSteinbrink holdstheChairofAnthropogeographyatthe
Faculty of Philosophy, University of Passau and is a member of the Institute for
Migration Research and Intercultural Studies (IMIS) at the University of Osnabrück,
Germany.HeisalsoSeniorResearchFellowanderSchoolofTourismandHospitality
der University of Johannesburg (UJ) in South Africa.
Heresearchesandpublishesinthefieldsofdevelopmentandmobilityresearchwith
a special focus on social inequalities, rural transformations, and urban development
processesincountriesoftheGlobalSouth.TheSocialandCulturalGeographerisalso
known for his extensive contributions to the study of slum tourism (in particular the
book Slum tourism: Poverty Power and Ethics [Routledge, 2012]). Geographical
sciencestudiesandthepotentialsofsocialnetworkanalysisarefurtherareasoffocusin
his research. Southern Africa is one regional focus of his empirical work.
Hannah Niedenführ is a member of the Institute for Migration Research and
Intercultural Studies (IMIS) at the University of Osnabrück and the recipient of a
scholarship from the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung. She studied African Studies, Law and
MigrationStudiesattheUniversityofHamburg,INALCOParisandtheUniversityof
Osnabrück.
She is currently pursuing her doctorate with a dissertation on child migration in
Burkina Faso. Her researchalso focuses on development processesand policies inthe
Global South, negotiations of migration and forced migration.
ix
Chapter 1
Introduction
Abstract Africa is immensely influenced by the spatial
movementofitspopulation.AfricaontheMove,however,is
not about “African refugees” nor African migration to
Europe. It is about much larger movements: the “everyday
migrations” within Africa. And it is about the enormous
relevance of migration to livelihood security on the African
continent.AfricaontheMove alsomakesclearthatAfricais
changing. Its social, economic, and ecological structures are
subject to rapid processes of transformation. How do people
organize their daily lives, either to improve their living
conditions or to respond to these various changes? Here,
migration plays as decisivea role as thesocial networks that
span across vast distances between regions of origin and
arrival. In particular, rural and urban areas in Sub-Saharan
Africa arecloselylinkedthroughinformal relations. Circular
migration and an intensive exchange of information, capital,
and goods characterize the interdependence of rural and
urban areas. These linkages are largely constituted in the
informal structures of social networks which span territorial
borders and, in turn, have a considerable impact on the
everydaylifeontheAfricancontinent.Withinmanypeople’s
livelihoodsystems,theHereandThere—e.g.,inthecityand
in the countryside—have certain, partially complementary
functions. It is only through a specific In-Betweenness that
these canbe linkedand combined tocontributetolivelihood
security. This book is a plea for the translocal dimension of
development to be given more attention than it has received
so far. It is time both for development research and for
practical development planning to adopt a translocal per-
spective. This introduction describes the basic idea of the
book and explains its inner structure.
©SpringerNatureSwitzerlandAG2020 1
M.SteinbrinkandH.Niedenführ,AfricaontheMove,SpringerGeography,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-22841-5_1