AYENKA FRANKLIN
MASTERS IN
SOCIAL SCIENCES AND INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
Demographic Politics,
Migration and Development in Africa
Content
1.
Introduction
2.
Why do people defy boundaries
3.
Objectives of the study
4. Theoretical
underpinnings
5.
Methodology
6.
observations
7.
Analysis of information
8.
The results
9.
Conclusion
1. Bibliography
Introduction
The
continued liberalization of world trade, the movement of goods and capital by
which this is measured, and the devastating effects of war on humanity has been
matched by a spectacular movement of persons in a defiant search for success
and security. Hence there is a consequent decline in the control power of the
nation-state over population movement as migrants struggle to resist state
oppression because they feel excluded from the opportunity to improve their
livelihoods or are threatened by violence conflicts. This has been described
today as a new “age of migration”
print and visual media.
The
defiant search for success is about how migrants defy national and
international law in their search for success and security through their
different activities as they find themselves excluded from opportunity and tend
to transgress boundaries of the law to commit illegal activities.[1]
The
study Paris-Congo by two experienced anthropologists examines the world of
informal commerce between Europe and Africa, particularly as carried out by
traders from Kinshasa and Brazzaville through their personal networks centered
in Paris. Faced with disorder and economic breakdown in their home countries,
these enterprising men and women have found ways to evade the normal rules of
travel and exchange to exploit opportunities to supply niche markets in
Europe's immigrant communities. By recording and analyzing life histories, the
authors show how traders construct and organize their businesses, build on
relationships of trust with family, friends, and members of their ethnic
groups, and ultimately develop identities that provide meaning, status, and
zest in their precarious lives. A fascinating look at the underside of globalization
and what the authors call the counter-hegemonic perspective of “debrouillez-vous” (fend for yourself)
among those excluded from the world of "legitimate" commerce is
central to this work. Due to the difficulties in accessing visas, these migrant
traders use route and survive in ways that are rough and mind boggling.[2]
This article responds to questions centered on those who do not and will not
accept exclusion from opportunity and fend for themselves with the will to
succeed in spite of the constraints of national and international authority
that lose sight of the fruition or returns of such ventures on local
communities or places of origins of the traders.
1.
Why
Do People Defy Boundaries
Among
the various models attempting to explain why migration from Africa to Europe
and elsewhere in search for better lives in spite of the restraints put in
place by governments and international agencies. The four approaches which can
be used are the following:
a.
Neoclassical economics in Europe and
Africa (Macro and Micro). Macro theory views geographic differences in the
supply and demand for labor in origin and destination countries as the major
factors driving individual migration decisions. The economic difference of the
two distinct geographical regions of Congo and Paris encourages the defiance of
national boundaries in search for success.
b.
Neoclassical micro economic theory
focuses on the level of individual rational actors such as the numerous
sub-Saharan Africans who make decisions to migrate based upon a cost-benefit
calculation that indicates a positive net return to movement. And in this case
it is the returns from trade even though it might be illegal.
c.
Dual labor market theory holds that
demand for low-level workers in more developed economies such as Western
Europe, is the critical factor shaping migration from sub-Saharan Africa to
Europe.
d.
World systems theory focuses not on labor
markets in national economies, but on the structure of the world market;
notably the "penetration of capitalist economic relations into peripheral,
non-capitalist societies," which takes place through the concerted actions
of neocolonial governments, multinational firms, and national elites.
The
questions here are how do these approaches influence the defiant search for
success by Africans in Europe and in communities far away from theirs? What
kind of activities do they determine to carry out to assure their success? Most
often the activities of most migrants as posited by the author of the article
are more often illegal trade. So, why is this type of trade considered a
resistance and who or what exactly are they resisting? The answers these
questions are childishly simple from the author’s point of view. The activities
of traders in search for success constitute smuggling which is an act of
rebellion against political and economic systems and the dominant groups.
2.
Objectives
Of The Article
The
objectives of the study are mainly:
•
To examine the degree and extent of transnational
migration and trade from Africa to Europe by combining the high standards and
frank reality that has characterized the series of meticulous and illuminating
empirical case studies.
•
To identify the categories and nature of
transmigrating traders from Africa and their type of trade which defies
national boundaries in the name of success;
•
To determine the typologies of migrants and
trade from Africa;
•
To examine the impact of traders defying
boundaries in their endless search for success on Africa and receiving
countries.
3.
Problematic/
Theoretical Underpinnings
Scholars of transnational thesis have
identified five major characteristics of trans-nationalism which when compared
with the study immigrants supports the transnational thesis. First, among
trans-migrants, there is a high frequency and intensity of exchange, diverse
modes of transaction, and multiplicity of activities that lead to travel and
contacts ,
This study found that immigrants travel to their
home countries and back, which involves an increasingly high intensity of
exchange of goods between Europe and their home countries
Second, transnational activities are tied into the
expansion and internationalization of capitalist production[3].
The argument sees the increase demand for cheap labor in the north, facilitated
by improvement in communication and technology, especially in menial jobs in
the service sectors of urban areas as lead causes attracting Southern workers
to economies of urban North.[4]
note that, “It is this
thick web of regular and instantaneous communication and travel that we
encounter today that differentiates trans-nationalism from the otherwise ad-hoc
and less frequent back and forth movement of migrants of the past”. Even
though this study shows an opposite direction of mainstream migration from Africa
to Europe, the postulated African–European flow of migrants is synonymous with
movements from less developed to more developed regions.
Third, trans-nationalism should be interpreted as new
ways of understanding and interpreting migrants’ identities. The argument is,
traditional migrants would abandon their identities and adopt new ones, what
Crush and McDonald described as “casting of the old and absorbing the new”.
This is best explained by the assimilation hypothesis. Trans-nationalism has
rendered such hypothesis anachronistic. For transnational migrants, identity is a hybrid in which they take on multiple identities, including a
combination of home and host countries. Transnational migrants understand that
successes in host country depend on preserving their identity and adopting new
ones, not abandoning their home identity (socio-cultural and linguistic
traits).
Based on the cumulative theory of transnational
migration, the fourth feature of trans-nationalism considers migration as an
interactive process that becomes increasingly independent of the conditions
that caused it (Massey et al, 1994; 1998). This feature fits the study
immigrants when considering their knowledge, experiences, social contacts,
interactions, networks, and their changing asylum motives. c. Cumulative causation theory holds
that, by altering the social context of subsequent migration decisions, the
establishment of international migration streams creates "feedback"
that makes additional movements more likely. Among the factors affected by
migration are the distribution of income and land; the organization of
agricultural production; the values and cultural perceptions surrounding
migration; the regional distribution of human capital; and the "social
labeling" of jobs in destination areas as "immigrant jobs."
Again, once a "migration system" has developed, it is often resistant
to government policy intervention.
Finally, new cultural strategies of adaptation, the
sheer size and diversity of migrants’ communities, new technologies of
communication and transportation offer new modes of resistance to exploitation
and discrimination of migrants. The study results show that xenophobia,
affirmative action policy, and discrimination have forced migrants to set up
their own social order. Immigrants in the study resist xenophobia,
discrimination and exploitation in many ways. They adapt to the socio-cultural
modes[5] in Europe.
Therefore, to fight this social ill that circles
them out from opportunity Africans migrate to Europe and engage in trading and
other business activities. Interviews with immigrants suggest profit
maximization as their ultimate goal. Findings further show that immigrant
business owners who based their transactions on the basis of more accurate
assessments of immigrants gain a competitive advantage over the majority of
Europeans who are more blinded by prejudice. Entrepreneurial members of
immigrants’ communities in the study take advantage for economic gains by
employing and managing qualified but discriminated immigrants. For these
immigrants their ultimate goal is profit maximization. Interviews suggest and
attribute the successes of immigrants’ fruit and vegetable shops.
4. Methodology
The
strength of the work is in ethnographic detail and argument. "Congo-Paris"
is a fine example of the recent trend in anthropology away from the localized
study of communities and towards analysis that transcends geographic
boundaries. Not that this study is "multi-sited" (to use the dominant
buzzword): MacGaffey and Bazenguissa conducted their fieldwork for the book
entirely in Paris, interviewing dozens of subjects from both Congo-Brazzaville
and Congo-Kinshasa. But Paris is just one venue in these transnational
subjects' life histories as they range back and forth across national, legal,
commercial, and cultural frontiers. It investigates the transnational trade
between Central Africa and Europe by focusing on the lives of individual
traders from Kinshasa and Brazzaville who operate across national frontiers and
often outside the law. Challenging the boundaries of traditional anthropology
This
book is a highly successful and creative collaboration between Janet MacGaffey,
an anthropologist who has studied the "second economy" in the Congo
for many years; Remy Bazenguissa-Ganga, a sociologist who has studied and
published on "la sape"; and a dedicated research assistant, himself a
trader and sapeur. Since the traders work on the margins of the law and are
highly mobile, they are a challenging population to study. A pivotal
methodological issue is trust. For six months, primarily in Paris in 1994, the
researchers gained the traders' trust and followed the lives of some twenty
individuals, about half of whom were "sapeurs." Using network analysis, they show
how “sapeurs” construct connections that extend through time, space, and
culture, as they circulate commodities between countries. MacGaffey and
Bazenguissa-Ganga elucidate the organization of the trade, how it can function
in the absence of a supportive legal system, and how traders find opportunities
to avoid oppressive constraints by operating outside state laws
While
the authors set out to validate the Congolese quest for relief from political
and economic hardship at home, the image they present of this loosely-defined
community of traders will do nothing for its image abroad. These individuals
define themselves through the act of quietly circumventing the rules
(particularly import duties and immigration laws), resisting governmental
authority without manifesting any visible signs of dissent. This is
understandable, given the corrupt and authoritarian Congolese regimes of recent
decades. But the transnational traders' ethos of stealthy noncompliance extends
to their overseas existence as well, with the result in these Parisian cases
being a gamut of criminal activity from smuggling and apartment squatting to
drug dealing and theft. "Model immigrants" they are not, regardless
of whether their behavior represents a survival strategy. One wonders just how
representative this underworld is of the larger community of Congolese living
in Paris, and whether those Congolese living more lawful existences there
object to being tarred with this brush of illegality.
5.
Observation
Such
moral qualms aside, I give "Congo-Paris" high marks for its thorough
and penetrating analysis of its subjects, a very difficult group to interview
given its members' legal status and clandestine activities. No doubt its
success owes much to the collaboration between MacGaffey (British) and
Bazenguissa (Congolese). The book also skillfully negotiates the difficult and
shifting theoretical territory of anthropology to bring outside perspectives to
bear on its subjects. Finally, it makes a strong case for redefining
anthropology in the context of ongoing processes of globalization. I suspect
that we will be seeing a good many more studies like this one in the future
Chapter
5 which is the bases of this work entitled “Contesting boundaries: the Defiant
Search for success” richly describes how personal relations work as
an impressive illustration of the vigour of coping in the most daunting
conditions of economic and political collapse. The norm of reciprocity informs
the structures and values traders use. The authors show how customary emphasis
on redistributing wealth among kin puts unique pressures on the traders and how
traders interpret occupational mishaps and personal illness as consequences of
their actions. This fascinating book explores a neglected topic in African
studies: petty transnational illegal trade between central Africa and Europe.
The book is unusual in at least three ways. First, it is concerned with the
informal sector, focused as it is on the commercial activities of young traders
who seek their 'fortune' by setting up links between France and Africa. Second,
it discusses in some detail the question of African identity as it evolves in
the course of such a long bi-continental roving existence. Finally, it examines
the relationship between seemingly insignificant trading activities and the
evolution of globalization - as it applies to Africa based on a relatively new
form of anthropological research.
6.
Analysis of information
The
study’s findings show that people who cheat the state or break its laws feel
that, since their leaders steal the state’s goods, they can do the same; they
say “if the authorities want us to stop, they must stop stealing the state’s
goods themselves.”[6]
They then defy the boundaries of the law, by carrying out unlicensed trade.
Discussions with immigrants show preferences to continue in a similar job or
get better-paid jobs in Europe than engaging in small business activities. An
immigrant tuck-shop owner explains further: “I was a professional teacher in
Cameroon but because I don’t have a teaching or any other better job, I have to
open this shop to sustain my family.” The majority of immigrants in the study
explained similarly, noting that lack of jobs give them little option outside
engaging in small business ventures. The succeeding section examines some
immigrant business activities and trade.
7.
The
results: Contesting boundaries and surviving outside the law
Shaw
(2001) traces and blames the origin of West African criminal networks in Europe
on corruption of state functionaries, rapid technological changes and the
collapse of the nation state. Kihato and Landau (2006) argue that migrants’
search for autonomy from state efforts at regulation end up as part of the "uncaptured urbanite." While immigrant criminal activities are not limited to the "uncaptured urbanite," the argument here is that immigrants are forced into
criminality largely even though not entirely to ‘West-a-phobia’. While there is
no crime free-society, the disturbing aspect of crime in South Africa is the
violent nature of the crime itself.
Different
sociological views: strain, interactionist, radical and control, best explained
the causes of crime in society. But in France the situation is unique with
complex combinations of different sociological explanations. Such complexity of
crime appears to explain why the country has become a target of major
international crime syndicates, and an attractive location for money laundering
and sophisticated fraud. More often these ills and odds are blamed on West
Africans in South Africa. A Functionalist theorist like Durkheim for example,
points out that crime is caused by increasing social strains which are
inevitable, normal and ever increasing. Foucault notes that tighter and more
meticulous law can result to increasing numbers of offenders. While the causes
of crime in Paris are not of concern here, it however highlight on why some
immigrants engage in activities outside the margins of the law. Findings
suggest that criminal activities are survival options for discriminated and
unemployed immigrants. Elsewhere, they are resistance practices common amongst
the poor and the politically powerless; while others think it’s a ‘weapon’ of the
poor. In this study, immigrants use terms like, “bush-faller”, and ‘Cam-air ’, to symbolize and justify their
lifestyle geared at profit maximization. Similarly, immigrants in Paris use
metaphors like “debrouiller” “l’aventure” and “to fend for oneself” to justify their actions. Metaphors and idioms
symbolize a way of life geared towards self-realization and gratification, and
are descriptions for improving oneself irrespective of the price (MacGaffey and
Ganga, 2000). Immigrants contest boundaries for self-realization
Shaw
argues that West African criminal groups without specific corporate structure
or hierarchy are classic examples of criminal networks. While this is not to
deny the existence of highly structured African criminal networks in Paris, the
focus is more on loose immigrant networks and suggestive of their effectiveness
in illegal business transactions. Taxes
and custom duties are legal boundaries transgressed by African immigrants. Immigrants selling ethnic goods, and/or exporting
goods from France, evade the payment of custom duties and related taxes. Hibou argues:
"Customs evasions or smuggling,
then, cannot be considered in isolation as an activity which is simply illegal
or criminal, but is better seen as one among a larger variety of techniques
designed to exploit opportunities offered by the state and to gain access to
the profits generated by operating between the local and international sectors."[7]
Immigrants’ connections and networks
facilitate the transgression of taxes. Interview reports show that immigrants
bring ethnic goods for sale in Europe.
To evade the payment of custom duties/taxes, the goods are declared as
personal property and when they are sold, immigrants maximize profits.
According to an immigrant, “When we bring
or they send us foodstuff from home we use our connections to clear the goods
and when we sell them we make reasonable profits”.
8.
Conclusions
To
conclude, it is worth noting that the daily lives of the immigrants in the
study depend on multiple and constant interconnections across international
borders, with configured identities based on the realities in Europe and their
home countries. Due to increasing levels of xenophobia, more and more
immigrants are becoming trans-migrants to guarantee their survival as well as
those of their family members at home. As observed: “Discrimination in Labour
markets whether anticipated or perceptual discrimination creates additional
incentives for self-employment including owner-operated businesses.”[8]
Activities outside the margins of the law by discriminated immigrants are not
uncommon. The cases of Congolese immigrants in Paris (Congo Paris) are well
established and documented. For some immigrants, these activities are
resistance practices for the marginalized while for others it is just a weapon
of the poor. These practices call for the reconsideration of issues around
immigration policies and the treatment of immigrants in Europe. However, this
is not to say that France was a crime free society, since evidence abound that
there are more horrendous crimes by the French. The economic potentials of
immigrants in the country can be exploited to the benefits of the French
economy if immigrants are provided with documentation, allowed to study and given
employment. By so doing, will reduce the rate of immigrants’ activities beyond
the margins of the law.
Citations
[1]
In Howard Berker’s book Outsiders:
Studies in the Sociology of Deviance tries to distinguish factors that
cause a person to be labeled “deviant”. He argues that the term depends not
only on the characteristics of the person so labeled but also on the transaction of the labeled
person and the society that labels him. So if the people in the study are
labeled as defiant in the search for success, it is because their activities
are not universally agreed upon and the disagreement over them are are part of
the political process of the society in which they find themselves or their
host society.
[2]
African Center for Applied Research and Training in Social
Development(ACARTSOD). Expert group meeting on interntional migration and
development in North Africa, Rabat and Morocco 19-20th march 2007.
On “Migration and development in Africa.”
[3]
Crush, J. and McDonald, D. A. (2002) ‘Transnationalism, African immigration,
and new migrants space in South Africa: An introduction’, in J. Crush and D. A.
McDonald (eds.), Transnationalism and New African Immigration to South
Africa, Cape Town: Southern African Migration Project/Canadian Association
of African Studies.
[4] Portes,
A, Guarnizo, L. & Landolt, P. (1999), The Study of Transnationalism:
Pitfalls and Promise of an Emergent Research Field. Ethnic and Racial Studies
Vol. 22, 217-237.
[5] Dressing,
hairstyles, gestures, make European friends,
[6] It
is an extract from the document being analyzed where people say “les hommes
politiques volent les bein de l’état. Nous emprenons ce terrain…”
[7] Hibou,
B. (1999), ‘The ‘social capital’ of the state as an agent of deception: Or the
ruses of economic intelligence’, in J. F. Bayart., S. Ellis and B. Hibou
(eds.), The Criminalization of the State in Africa, Indiana: Indiana University
Press.
[8] Sowell,
T. (1981), Markets and Minorities, New York: Basic Books Inc. Publishers.
References
- African Center for Applied Research and Training in Social Development(ACARTSOD). Expert group meeting on interntional migration and development in North Africa, Rabat and Morocco 19-20th march 2007. On “Migration and development in Africa.”
- Crush, J. and McDonald, D. A. (2002) ‘Transnationalism, African immigration, and new migrants space in South Africa: An introduction’, in J. Crush and D. A. McDonald (eds.), Transnationalism and New African Immigration to South Africa, Cape Town: Southern African Migration Project/Canadian Association of African Studies.
- Hibou, B. (1999), ‘The ‘social capital’ of the state as an agent of deception: Or the ruses of economic intelligence’, in J. F. Bayart., S. Ellis and B. Hibou (eds.), The Criminalization of the State in Africa, Indiana: Indiana University Press.
- Howard Berker’s book Outsiders: Studies in the Sociology of Deviance
- Portes, A, Guarnizo, L. & Landolt, P. (1999), The Study of Transnationalism: Pitfalls and Promise of an Emergent Research Field. Ethnic and Racial Studies Vol. 22, 217-237.
- Sowell, T. (1981), Markets and Minorities, New York: Basic Books Inc. Publishers.
