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2019 | Book

Girls, Transitions and Migration Read chapter Read first chapter

Adolescent Girls' Migration in The Global South

Transitions into Adulthood

Authors: Katarzyna Grabska, Marina de Regt, Nicoletta Del Franco

Publisher: Springer International Publishing

Book Series : Palgrave Studies on Children and Development

Part of: Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik" , Springer Professional "Wirtschaft" , Springer Professional "Technik"

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About this book

This book provides a nuanced, complex, comparative analysis of adolescent girls’ migration and mobility in the Global South. The stories and the narratives of migrant girls collected in Bangladesh, Ethiopia and Sudan guide the readers in drawing the contours of their lives on the move, a complex, fluid scenario of choices, constraints, setbacks, risks, aspirations and experiences in which internal or international migration plays a pivotal role. The main argument of the book is that migration of adolescent girls intersects with other important transitions in their lives, such as those related to education, work, marriage and childbearing, and that this affects their transition into adulthood in various ways. While migration is sometimes negative, it can also offer girls new and better opportunities with positive implications for their future lives. The book explores also how concepts of adolescence and adulthood for girls are being transformed in the context of migration.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter
Chapter 1. Girls, Transitions and Migration
Abstract
The introductory chapter presents the background of the research project on which the book is based and sets out its main theme. It explains the choice of the three case studies (Bangladesh, Ethiopia and Sudan) and then moves on to the academic debates about gender, adolescence, transitions and migration. The chapter explains the importance of exploring the link between migratory choices and trajectories and adolescence as a phase in life in which critical transitions take place. The book takes a broader view of adolescence as a particular life phase and argues that contrary to approaches that confine adolescents (and children) to the passive position of incomplete human beings, who are in the process of being socialized into adult social roles, young people are active agents engaged in the construction of their social identities through on-going processes of negotiation within social relations. The chapter presents the main research questions and briefly introduces the remaining chapters of the book.
Katarzyna Grabska, Marina de Regt, Nicoletta Del Franco
Chapter 2. Doing Research Among Migrant and Refugee Girls
Abstract
This chapter discusses the book’s methodological approach. Inspired by feminist methodologies, participatory methods were used in the research to break away from hierarchical power dynamics and minimize harm and control of the research process. The chapter presents the realization of the methodological approach and the methods used such as ethnographic research, focus group discussions (FGDs), the collection of life stories, and following girls over a longer period of time to get a better insight into their life trajectories and choices. It reflects on the involvement of migrant and refugee girls as research assistants and researchers in the three different contexts, and on the advantages and disadvantages of collaborative and comparative research. It explains the choice to make a documentary film about migrant girls in Bangladesh and Ethiopia, and the ways in which the film was used not only for dissemination but also as a data-analysis method.
Katarzyna Grabska, Marina de Regt, Nicoletta Del Franco
Chapter 3. Situating Girls’ Migration in Three Contexts
Abstract
This chapter contextualizes adolescent girls’ migration in the three countries: Bangladesh Ethiopia, and Sudan. In Ethiopia, rural girls migrate mainly to become domestic workers for (often distant) relatives, sometimes in exchange for education, but an increasing number now become sex workers. In the past few decades in Bangladesh, with the rise of the garment export industry, the number of girls migrating to Dhaka has rapidly increased, although there are no official statistics available. Another form of migration is that of Garo girls and women, an ethnic minority, who work predominantly in beauty parlours or as domestic workers for foreigners. Sudan hosts large numbers of adolescent girls from Eritrea and Ethiopia, both as migrants and as refugees. The chapter also discusses the economic, social and political contexts in Bangladesh, Ethiopia and Sudan and policies on migrants, refugees and migration. It presents the three cities: Dhaka, Addis Ababa and Khartoum, in order to set the scene for the analysis of girls’ migration experiences.
Katarzyna Grabska, Marina de Regt, Nicoletta Del Franco
Chapter 4. Becoming a Migrant, Becoming a Refugee
Abstract
This chapter starts with the life story of Helen, who escaped Eritrea to Sudan when she was 17 years old. Helen’s life story goes against the dominant discourse, which presents migrant girls’ motivations mainly in terms of helping the family, sacrificing themselves for their parents and siblings, or escaping political regimes, and having no other choice. As a result, migrant girls are oftentimes presented as victims of constrained circumstances. Notwithstanding the importance of poverty and human rights violations, the girls’ narratives reveal more complex and multifaceted decision-making processes. They show elements of agency, as well as pressures, in the choice to migrate and in the way the decision to do so is taken. The stories presented and analyzed in this chapter show that girls’ choices can result from diverse factors: the struggle to survive versus following their own aspirations and desires. This chapter contributes to the theoretical debates on children and young people’s mobility and agency.
Katarzyna Grabska, Marina de Regt, Nicoletta Del Franco
Chapter 5. Life in the Cities
Abstract
This chapter describes and analyzes girls’ first encounters with the cities. The story of Sharmeen, who works in the garment industry in Dhaka, is a starting point to present and discuss the lives of migrant and refugee girls in Dhaka, Addis Ababa and Khartoum. The chapter describes the ways in which they arrived and settled their first encounters with the local population and other migrants, and their living conditions. It compares the situation in each capital city and discusses how migrant and refugee girls try to develop a space of their own. It elaborates on the girls’ working conditions, as garment workers, domestic workers, waitresses, sex workers and tea-sellers. In each of the three case studies, adolescent girls experience strong systems of social control, and often stigmatization, discrimination and harassment. At the same time, the cities also increase girls’ options in terms of lives to which they aspire, and enlarge their view of themselves in the world.
Katarzyna Grabska, Marina de Regt, Nicoletta Del Franco
Chapter 6. Risks, Threats and Setbacks
Abstract
The chapter discusses the risks, threats and set-backs girls face through the story of Tigist, who escaped an abusive household and worked as a sex worker on the streets of Addis Ababa. Her narrative shows the different forms of abuse migrant girls may encounter, but also illustrates their resilience. Girls’ lived experiences are discussed within the analytical framework on migration, risks and uncertainties, and vulnerabilities debates. The sources of vulnerability for migrant and refugee girls and young women are multiple: their position as girls and as women, their specific ethnic and national background, their legal situation as foreigners and the absence of parents, guardians or relatives. In addition, the nature of their work, their level of education, and the lack of support from international, national and community organizations, increase their vulnerability. Girls’ experiences in the long-term reveal the extent to which their volatile lives are marked by protracted uncertainty and precariousness.
Katarzyna Grabska, Marina de Regt, Nicoletta Del Franco
Chapter 7. Being Protected and Protecting Yourself
Abstract
The chapter starts with the story of Tsirite from Ethiopia, who navigates an adverse environment in Khartoum working as a live-in domestic for Sudanese families. It examines the sources of protection and support on which migrant and refugee girls can rely in the three countries. While adolescent migrant girls are clearly visible in the landscape in each of the capital cities, they are largely invisible for those planning and implementing development interventions. Government institutions have no particular policies focusing on migrant and refugee girls, and national and international organizations’ interventions rarely distinguish them as a distinct group. Girls rely mostly on informal sources of support, such as those offered by social and religious networks. They build social capital by supporting each other and sharing resources, housing, money and food. In this way, they are better able to protect themselves than those who have a very limited social network. The chapter contributes to the debates on translocal social protection and the role of young female migrants in creating safer environments for themselves and their families.
Katarzyna Grabska, Marina de Regt, Nicoletta Del Franco
Chapter 8. Surviving, Resisting and Moving Forward
Abstract
The chapter presents the story of Lamia, who moved to Dhaka at the age of 16 to work in the garment industry and to support her mother and sister. It examines how migrant and refugee adolescent girls and young women deal with the limited options and constrained choices that their different contexts offer. They are often aware of the hazards of the journey, as well as the dangers of different migratory destinations, but they decide to face them in order to improve their situation. Their narratives show their resilience, their capacity to navigate adverse situations and how they develop self-confidence and learn to take care of themselves. The chapter contributes to the discussions of agency of adolescent girls and young women in coping with their living conditions and in carving out for themselves new life options and trajectories. It locates their actions within the “politics of small things” (see Goldfarb 2006), revealing how “small things” matter in their daily survival, resistance and moving forward.
Katarzyna Grabska, Marina de Regt, Nicoletta Del Franco
Chapter 9. Beyond Survival: The Wider Implications of Girls’ Migration
Abstract
Arsema’s narrative is central to this chapter. She migrated from Ethiopia to Sudan at the age of 16. Through the narratives of women who migrated as adolescent girls over the last 10–25 years as well as those who came more recently, the chapter presents findings related to sending remittances, supporting family members, investing in the future, and the impact on households and on the status of migrants in relation to their families. The chapter shows that the increasing participation of young girls in the labour market in their place of destination, their increasing contributions to household finances, even if minimal, have effects on gender and generational relations both within families and in societies at large. In the short term, the effects of migration on girls and their families are rather negative. Yet, one needs to also pay close attention to how migrants, refugees and their families conceptualize change. While positive changes might not be immediately visible, small steps of transformation do take place. This chapter locates the discussions in the literature on social transformations while paying specific attention to the emergence of translocal families.
Katarzyna Grabska, Marina de Regt, Nicoletta Del Franco
Chapter 10. Transitions and Transformations
Abstract
In the concluding chapter, we reflect on how the choice to migrate and the experiences of migration have affected the young migrants’ life trajectories and how they have intersected with their transition to adulthood. We conclude the theme of transitions focusing specifically on marriage and of alternative ways of becoming an adult woman that emerge in the context of migration. Second, we locate our conclusions in the discussion of how the gender order has had profound effects on the decision, experiences and consequences of migration for the girls and their families in the three case studies. In the chapter, we look specifically at social relations and at gender norms using a life-course and generational analysis. Finally, we conclude by reflecting on whether migration is a good option for girls.
Katarzyna Grabska, Marina de Regt, Nicoletta Del Franco
Backmatter
Metadata
Title
Adolescent Girls' Migration in The Global South
Authors
Katarzyna Grabska
Marina de Regt
Nicoletta Del Franco
Copyright Year
2019
Electronic ISBN
978-3-030-00093-6
Print ISBN
978-3-030-00092-9
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-00093-6

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