Djamila Schans

Transnational Families Between Africa and Europe

This paper provides a descriptive and comparative analysis of transnational families with members located in Africa and Europe. It is thus far the only quantitative study, to our knowledge, that includes crosscountry comparisons and focuses on the African European context. By comparing both countries of origin and destination, differences in family arrangements are found among Ghana, Senegal, and the Democratic Republic of Congo as well as within these groups depending on the European destination countries. Findings show that dates of arrival and migrant legal status are most commonly associated with transnational family forms. Family and gender norms at origin, migration motivations, destination country family reunification and migration policies, and destination country characteristics related to language, employment opportunities, and educational system help to explain the differences found.

'Entangled in Tokyo': exploring diverse pathways of labor market incorporation of African immigrants in Japan

Abstract In this article I explore employment practices and pathways of labor market incorporation of sub-Saharan African immigrants in Japan. Based on secondary information as well as 5 months of ethnographic fieldwork in Tokyo and its suburbs, I will first describe the history of migration from Africa to Japan and the current demographic characteristics of African immigrants in Japan. I will then continue to describe the employment practices of African immigrants to explore questions surrounding integration, incorporation, and the use of human and social capital in the Japanese context. My findings give a first indication of the mechanisms behind the diverse trajectories, especially highlighting the importance of entrepreneurship, transnational ties with the country of origin, and ties with Japanese nationals in facilitating labor market incorporation. Finally, attention is also given to the role of the Japanese state in facilitating or hindering opportunities for employment.

Transnational Families Between Ghana, the Netherlands and the UK

This chapter investigates family life in the context of international migration between Ghana and Europe. Families engage in cross-border practices, such as nuclear and extended family members receiving remittances, goods, phone calls and visits from migrants abroad. Importantly, there is also evidence of reverse remittances, that is, flows from households in Ghana to their migratory contacts abroad. Transnational family forms, in which one or more members of the nuclear family are living abroad while the other members remain in the home or another country, are common. The extent to which migrants live transnationally or together with their nuclear family depends on their individual socio-economic and migration-related characteristics, but also on the destination country’s policies and structures. Furthermore, transnational families do not always reunify and when they do, they often reunify in Ghana rather than the country of destination.

Against the Grain: International Marriages between African Men and Japanese Women

International marriages (kokusai kekkon) in Japan have been steadily increasing with one out of eighteen matches involving a foreign spouse in 2008. Class intersects with race and gender in the discourse of international marriage in Japan. Whereas most research focuses on international marriages between rural Japanese men and Asian brides, the medias emphasis is on Japanese women who marry Western men. The main aim of this article is to expand the discussion on international marriage by looking at couples in which the male spouse is coming from a developing country. I will do this by looking at Sub-Saharan African spouses of Japanese women in Japan. By switching the perspective to men coming from developing countries marrying women in wealthier nations, new insights on the intersections of gender, class and race can be explored while conventional notions surrounding international marriage, such as hypergamy, are challenged.

Migrant Families Between Africa and Europe: Comparing Ghanaian, Congolese and Senegalese Migration Flows

This chapter provides a descriptive and comparative analysis of transnational families with members located in Africa and Europe. By comparing both countries of origin and destination, differences in family arrangements are found among Ghana, Senegal and the Democratic Republic of Congo as well as within these groups depending on the European destination countries. Findings show that families in origin countries and migrants overseas maintain active relationships through remittance sending and receiving, contact via telephone and visits. This involves nuclear as well as extended family members. Transnational family forms are most commonly associated with dates of arrival and legal status of migrants overseas. Furthermore, family and gender norms at origin, migration motivations, destination country family reunification and migration policies, and destination country characteristics related to language, employment opportunities and educational system help to explain the differences found in the prevalence of transnational families in the different countries studied.

Changing patterns of Ghanaian migration

Migration has been part of people’s experience in many parts of Africa throughout history (De Bruin et al. 2001) and Ghana is no exception. Migration flows were typically regional due to commerce, forced labor and circulatory nomadic routes. Over the last decades however, migration patterns extended geographically with larger shares of migrants moving to Europe and North America. Even within these regions, African migrant flows have been diversifying (Grillo & Mazzucato 2008). Yet little comparative empirical data exist on migration flows between Africa and Europe and many of the characteristics and changes of these flows are still largely unknown. The objective of this chapter is to first describe international migration patterns from Ghana using the quantitative MAFE household data collected in Kumasi and Accra, Ghana, and second to focus on migration from Ghana to Europe, and back, specifically as it concerns flows between Ghana, The Netherlands and the United Kingdom. This second focus uses the MAFE biographic data collected both in Ghana and in Europe.

African Migration: Diversity and changes

This chapter gives an overview of the patterns of African migration using quantitative data from the MAFE surveys. Three broad topics are addressed: (1) patterns of mobility, focusing on trends in departures, returns and circulation, (2) profiles of migrants, and (3) migration routes and strategies. Using extensive data on three origin countries and six destination countries, it identifies some common patterns and trends, as well as heterogeneity and changes in African migration. A key finding is that African migration is diverse. Trends in departures and returns have developed differently across countries, and migrants’ profiles and motives for departure also vary widely by destination and origin country. While migration to Europe has generally become more complex, strategies and routes have also varied more widely across origin and destination countries.