Child Migration in Africa

By Iman Hashim and Dorte Thorsen

"Child Migration in Africa" explores the mobility of children without their parents within West Africa. Drawing on the experiences of children from rural Burkina Faso and Ghana, the book provides rich material on the circumstances of children's voluntary migration and their experiences of it. Their accounts challenge the normative ideals of what a 'good' childhood is, which often underlie public debates about children's migration, education and work in developing countries. The book also includes rural and urban relatives' views on young people's migration, which together with the child migrants' own descriptions of their motivations, offer a window on the decision-making processes involved. Their reasoning demonstrates that children's migration does not necessarily signify a rupture in family relations. The comparative study of Burkina Faso and Ghana highlights that social networks operate in ways that can be both enabling and constraining for young migrants, as can cultural views on age- and gender appropriate behavior. The book questions easily made assumptions regarding children's experiences when migrating independently of their parents and, by drawing parallels with children's migration in Latin America and Asia, contributes to analytical and cross-cultural understandings of childhood. This book is an important and timely contribution to an under-researched area, which has been subject to much policy-making on unsupported grounds.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1848134568
• ISBN13: 9781848134560
• Release Date: February 2011
• Publisher: Zed Books
• Length: 160 Pages
• Weight: 0.64 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.1" x 9.1"