Kinship construction variability among Nigerian international migrants: The context of contemporary Diaspora

• Authors: Olayinka Akanle , Olanrewau Olutayo
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

Understanding the selves, situations and actions of Africans can never be comprehended outside kinship. Local and foreign worldviews are first pigeonholed into culture and defined within kinship realities in Nigeria and Africa. There have been studies on kinship in Africa. However, the findings from such studies portrayed the immutability of African kinship. Thus, as an important contribution to the on-going engagement of kinship in the twenty-first century as an interface between the contemporary Diaspora, this article engaged kinship within international migration. This is a major behavioural and socio-economic force in Nigeria. Methodological triangulation was adopted as part of the research design and primary data were collected through in-depth interviews (IDIs), and life histories of international migrants were documented and focus group discussions (FGDs) were held with kin of returnees. The article found and concluded that while returnees continued to appreciate local kinship infrastructures, the infrastructures were liable to reconstruction primarily determined by dominant support situations in the traditional African kinship networks.

Keywords

EN

kinship construction; Nigeria; international migration; diaspora; Nigeria

• Publisher: Sciendo
• Journal: Human Affairs
• Year: 2011
• Volume: 21
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 470-480

Dates

published

2011-12-01

online

2011-12-25

Contributors

author

Olayinka Akanle

• University of Ibadan

author

Olanrewau Olutayo

• University of Ibadan

References

• [1] Adepoju, A. (2010). Introduction: Rethinking the dynamics of migration within, from and to Africa. In A. Adepoju (Ed.). International Migration: within, to and from Africa in a Globalized World, pp. 9–46. Ghana: Sub-Saharan Publishers.
• [2] Aguilar, F. (2009). Labour Migration and Ties of Relatedness: Diasporic Houses and Investments in Memory in A Rural Philippine Village. Thesis Eleven 98, 88–114. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0725513609105485[Crossref]
• [3] Akinjogbin, I. A. (2002). Milestones and Social Systems in Yoruba Historical and Culture. Nigeria: Olu-Akin Publishers.
• [4] Arowolo, O.O. (2000). Return migration and the problem of re-integration. International Migration 38, 59–82. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1468-2435.00128[Crossref]
• [5] Babawale, T. (2008). Africa and African Diaspora Relations: Challenges, Opportunities and Prospects. CBAAC Occasional Monographs, 10. Nigeria and Oxford: Malthouse Press Limited.
• [6] Clark, R.L., Jennifer, G.E., Bures, R.M. (2009). Immigrant Families over the Life Course: Research Directions and Needs. Journal of Family Issues 30, 852–872. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0192513X09332162[WoS][Crossref]
• [7] Diouf, M., Rendall, S. (2000). The Senegalese Murid Trade Diaspora and the Making of a Vernacular Cosmopolitanism. Public Culture 12, 679–702. [Crossref]
• [8] Duany, J. (2002). Mobile Livelihoods: The Sociocultural Practices of Circular Migrants between Puerto Rico and the United States. International Migration Review 36, 355–388.
• [9] Edwards, B.H. (2003). The Practice of Diaspora: Literature, Translation, and the Rise of Black Internationalism. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
• [10] Gilroy, P. (1995). Route work: The Black Atlantic and The Politics of Exile. In I. Chambers, L. Curti (Eds.), pp. 17–29. The Post-Colonial Question. U.S.A.: Routledge.
• [11] Gilroy, P. (1993). The Black Atlantic Modernity and Double Consciousness. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press/Verso.
• [12] Hernandez-Coss, R., Bun, C.E. (2006). The U.K-Nigeria Remittance Corridor: Challenges of Embracing Formal Transfer Systems. In A Dual Financial Environment. London: Department for International Development (DfID).
• [13] Jones, J.L. (2008). Spirituality and Academic Discourse: Building a Yoruba Studies Programme at A Research One Institutions. Global African Spirituality, Social Capital and Self Reliance in Africa. T. Babawale and A. Alao. (Eds.), pp. 233–238. Nigeria: Malthouse Press.
• [14] Korinek, K., Entwisle, B., Jampaklay, A. (2005). Through Thick and Thin: Layers of Social Ties and Urban Settlement among Thai Migrants. American Sociological Review 70, 779–800. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/000312240507000503[Crossref]
• [15] Mines, R., de Janvry, A. (1982). Migration to the United States and Mexican Rural Development: A Case Study. American Journal of Agricultural Economics 64, 444–454. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/1240636[Crossref]
• [16] Pfeffer, K. (1997). Young Nigerians’ Perceptions of a “Good Husband” and a “Good Wife”. Youth Society 28, 499–516. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0044118X97028004005[Crossref]
• [17] Reynolds, R.R. (2002). An African Brain Drain: Igbo Decisions to Immigrate into the US. Review of African Political Economy 92, 273–284. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03056240208704613[Crossref]
• [18] Thompson, A. (2003). “I live on My Memories”: British Return Migration and Possession of The Past. Oral History 31, 55–65.
• [19] Togunde, D.R., Osagie, S.O. (2009). Icons of Progress: Returnees’ Effects on Decisions by Nigerians to Migrate to the U.S. International Journal of Modern Sociology 35, 115–135.
• [20] Trager, L. (2001). Yoruba Hometowns: Community, Identity, and Development in Nigeria. Ibadan: Spectrum Books Limited.
• [21] Uya, O.E. (1987). African Diaspora and the Black Experience in New World Slavery. Washington: Third Press.
• [22] Van Den Baseelar, D. (2005). Imagining Home: Migration and the Igbo Village in Colonial Nigeria. The Journal of African History 46, 51–73. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0021853704000015[Crossref]
• [23] Veney, C.R. (2002). The Ties that Bind: the Historic African diaspora and Africa. African Issues 30, 3–8. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/1167082[Crossref]
• [24] Watson, J.L. (2004). Presidential Address. Virtual Kinship, Real Estate, and Diaspora Formation: The Man Lineage Revisited. The Journal of Asian Studies 63, 893–910. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0021911804002359[Crossref]
• [25] Yang, S.Y. (2005). Imagining the State: An Ethnographic Study. Ethnography 6, 487–516. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1466138105062474[Crossref]
• [26] Zang, X. (2006). Social Resources, Class Habitus and Friendship Ties in Urban China. Journal of Sociology 42, 79–92. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1440783306061354[Crossref]

Identifiers

DOI

10.2478/s13374-011-0044-2