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Begin New Search Content Type Research Paper Publishing Institution Ìrìnkèrindò: a Journal of African Migration

11. Exploring the Migration Experiences of Black Zimbabwean Women in the Greater Cincinnati Area

Author:
Florence Nyemba and Lisa Vaughn
Publication Date:
12-2017
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Ìrìnkèrindò: a Journal of African Migration
Abstract:
This article explores the migration experiences of Zimbabwean immigrant women living in the Greater Cincinnati, Ohio area. It argues that despite the increased population of women migrating, sometimes alone, in search of a better lifestyle, their unique experiences have remained invisible in studies on migration. The study followed a participatory research approach and used a photovoice method for data collection. Over a period of seven months, participants took photographs that vividly captured their experiences. Implications from the findings and the nature of the photovoice as a participatory approach for future research with Zimbabwean immigrant women are presented.
Topic:
Migration, Immigration, and Women
Political Geography:
Africa, United States, and Zimbabwe

12. The Political Economy of International Migration: Three Important Perspectives

Author:
Mojúbàolú Olufúnké Okome
Publication Date:
06-2015
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Ìrìnkèrindò: a Journal of African Migration
Abstract:
The publication of this issue is foreshadowed by the tragic drowning of hundreds of migrants, including Africans, in the Mediterranean Sea (BBC News 2015, Rosen 2015, Walsh, Almasy and Botelho 2015, Traynor 2015, Fottrell 2015). The sheer size of these drownings have once again caused popular horror and contemplation on causes and consequences of migration. The projection by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) that these deaths could increase to over 30,000 just in 2015 is anxiety provoking and shocking (AlJazeera News 2015, Brian and Laczko 2014). The drownings have also caused increased focus on the policies of popular destination countries and regions and critiques of the harshness of these regimes as well as calls for more humane migration policies, research and documentation of the root causes of migration, and heartrending accounts of migrants’ motives and harrowing experiences (Clegg 2015, Barker 2014, Kassam 2014). As well, they have caused intensified media attention to the circumstances that propel migration from various African countries and the choice of destinations in Europe. These conditions and circumstances are hardly new. Neither are the tales of woe that attend the serious decision to abandon familiar misery of migrants’ homelands in hopes of somehow experiencing the miracle of success in unknown climes (Sy 2006, Ndege 2006, Morris 2005, Bailey 2005, Travis August, Kingsley 2015).
Topic:
Migration, Political Economy, and Global Political Economy
Political Geography:
Africa and Europe

13. Cultural Differences and the Economic Performance of Minorities and Immigrants

Author:
Gil S. Epstein and Erez Siniver
Publication Date:
06-2015
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Ìrìnkèrindò: a Journal of African Migration
Abstract:
The economic outcomes of a minority group may be adversely affected by the cultural differences between it and the majority group. On the other hand, cultural differences may lead a minority group to concentrate in enclaves, which can offset to some extent the negative effect of cultural discrimination. We examine how the relative size of a minority group and cultural differences between groups can affect economic outcomes. We begin by specifying a simple theoretical framework and then characterize an economy with four ethnic groups that differ culturally and in size. We then test the effect of these differences on economic outcomes. The results indicate that the difference in earnings between native Jews and Ethiopian immigrants and between native Jews and Israeli Arabs is due to taste-based discrimination.
Topic:
Migration, Political Economy, Immigration, Culture, and Immigrants
Political Geography:
Africa, Israel, and Ethiopia

14. Women’s Voices from the Zimbabwean Diaspora: Migration and Change

Author:
Elaine McDuff
Publication Date:
06-2015
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Ìrìnkèrindò: a Journal of African Migration
Abstract:
The increasing feminization of Zimbabwean migration is part of an overall increase in migration from Zimbabwe since 1990 – primarily to destinations in South Africa and the UK, though Zimbabweans now live in countries throughout the world. There are currently three to four million Zimbabwean cross-border migrants, or about 25 percent of Zimbabwe’s total population of twelve million. Most Zimbabweans leaving the country in the last two decades have been forced to do so because of economic and political instability, and it is women who have experienced the most dramatic changes in patterns of migration. Based on interviews with twenty-three Zimbabwean women migrants, this study seeks to explain the dramatic increase in the number of women who have migrated to work outside of Zimbabwe, and the impact of women’s migration on family structures and gender roles.
Topic:
Migration, Diaspora, and Women
Political Geography:
Africa, United Kingdom, South Africa, and Zimbabwe

15. A BETTER QUALITY OF LIFE: THE DIMENSIONS OF SOMALI SECONDARY MIGRATION

Author:
Jay L. Newberry
Publication Date:
06-2015
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Ìrìnkèrindò: a Journal of African Migration
Abstract:
The purpose of this study is to identify the dimensions associated with the early wave of Somali secondary migration. Many contemporary refugee groups embark on secondary migrations, but it is the Somali who receive more attention than most – primarily because of false allegations circulating at the destination of state shopping and welfare (or government provided financial and nonfinancial support) hunting. This study subjected several socioeconomic variables to a principal component analysis/regression which empirically revealed that, while welfare was a factor, its influence was nominal and last behind several dimensions associated with a better quality of life.
Topic:
Migration
Political Geography:
Africa and Somalia

16. Thinking About Return Migration to Africa: Theories, Praxes, General Tendencies & African Particularities

Author:
Mojúbàolú Olufúnké Okome
Publication Date:
06-2014
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Ìrìnkèrindò: a Journal of African Migration
Abstract:
The simplest definition of return migration construes it as the move back from a place of sojourn to a place of origin by a migrant who then settles down. But return could be temporary or permanent. It could be volitional or compelled. There could also be secondary and repeat migration. Regardless of the contemporary worldwide concern about the meanings, implications, significance and consequences of return migration, return migration is yet to be subjected to as much scholarly research as other aspects of the migration phenomenon. Eborka in this volume rightfully points out that the gap in scholarly knowledge on this subject is even more profound in the case of Africa, and there is a dearth of statistics, as Essien, Setrana and Tonah indicate. Through her analysis of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Americanah, Idowu-Faith also alerts us to the theoretical contributions of literary exploration of migration and especially return migration. This volume on return migration to Africa therefore contributes to discourses and research on the subject and in doing so, also contributes significantly to filling the gap in scholarly knowledge.
Topic:
Migration and Literature
Political Geography:
Africa

17. Fictionalizing Theory, Theorizing Fiction: The Stylistics of Return Migration in Chimamanda Adichie's Americanah

Author:
Bimbola Oluwafunlola Idowu-Faith
Publication Date:
06-2014
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Ìrìnkèrindò: a Journal of African Migration
Abstract:
This paper is a stylistic investigation of Americanah (2013) Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s latest novel. Whereas Americanah is the melting pot where love and romance collide and comingle with hair politics and the shifting meanings of skin color, Adichie employs migration as the window through which these issues are projected. Beyond Adichie’s juxtaposition of binary migratory terms of “Americanah” and “American” and her protagonist’s choice of the former, the novelist’s preoccupation is to critically engage international migration theories, and to chart a new migration story, where return migration is the quintessential closure.
Topic:
Migration, International Affairs, Literature, and Novels
Political Geography:
Africa

18. "Afie ni Afie" (Home is Home): Revisiting Reverse Trans-Antlantic Journeys to Ghana and the Paradox Return

Author:
Kwame Essien
Publication Date:
06-2014
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Ìrìnkèrindò: a Journal of African Migration
Abstract:
This article traces different waves of reverse migrations to the Gold Coast, now Ghana, which began in the early nineteenth century. The article explores external motivations for pursuing these journeys and factors internal to Ghanaian history that facilitated reverse migrations. Both contributed to the contradictions of return and the paradox of freedom or the illusion that their physical presence in Ghana would fulfil their fantasy. Part of the article chronicles the stories of individuals, family groups, and the transatlantic communities they created: Brazilian-Africans (Tabom), Caribbean Africans and American-Africans. The article focuses on themes of slavery, emancipation, abolition, reverse migrations and Pan-African activities in Ghana. This article maintains that literature on reverse migrations should extend beyond the narrow focus of the New World back to Africa. I assert that there are other reverse migratory paths from West Africa to Brazil (after liberated Brazilian-Africans settled in Africa in the early 1800s) and between Nigeria and Ghana that have been overlooked by scholars in their study of reverse migrations to Ghana and West Africa in general. In the end, this article shows similarities in reverse migrations and shared cultural kinship as members of the returnee communities in Lagos-Nigeria (the Aguda) and Accra-Ghana (the Tabom) crisscrossed the West African Atlantic and created various identities.
Topic:
Migration, Slavery, and Literature
Political Geography:
Africa, Nigeria, and Ghana

19. Diary of an American Woman: First Part of a Three-Part Story Called This Africa in my Dream

Author:
Chinyere G. Okafor
Publication Date:
06-2014
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Ìrìnkèrindò: a Journal of African Migration
Abstract:
The Structural Adjustment Program (SAP) was adopted in Nigeria after unsustainable foreign indebtedness caused grave economic crisis, which spun off political and social turmoil. Its adoption in 1986 by the Babangida military regime, was pushed by the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF), as the only viable solution to Nigeria’s problems. Rather than provide relief, the adoption of SAP imposed extreme neoliberal austerity policies that pushed many middle class families into poverty, causing some to migrate both within the country and abroad. “Diary of an American Woman” is the story of three characters, Ola, Love, and Fakar. The story presents an account of three migrations: internal migration within Nigeria, external migration to America, and patrilocal movement from parental to marital abodes. Ola keeps a journal about her immigrant experience in America, which unfortunately is lost with her luggage in Nigeria. Fakar discovers the journal in his workplace and begins to read it. Ola’s immigrant experience in America as recalled in her diary reveals the underbelly of life of a Nigerian in America to the hotel janitor.
Topic:
Debt, International Political Economy, World Bank, Military Affairs, Literature, and IMF
Political Geography:
Africa and Nigeria

20. Return Migrants and the Challenge of Reintegration: The Case of Returnees to Kumasi, Ghana

Author:
Mary Boatemaa Setrana and Steve Tonah
Publication Date:
06-2014
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Ìrìnkèrindò: a Journal of African Migration
Abstract:
This paper describes the nature of migrants’ return to Kumasi, Ghana’s second largest city, and the strategies employed by the returnees to establish links with their relatives and friends, as well reintegrate into their neighbourhoods, and participate fully in city life. Using interviews and observations carried out among 30 return migrants and some migrant associations, the paper concludes that return migration is a negotiated process among family members. Migrants face several challenges including finding accommodation and jobs, establishing contacts with former colleagues and friends, meeting the high expectations of extended family members, and adjusting to the poor infrastructural facilities in the city. Return migrants are able to surmount these difficulties with support from family members, friends, colleagues, and a host of social organizations and networks.
Topic:
Migration, Urban, and Social Groups
Political Geography:
Africa and Ghana