Migrant girls and little maids

Research Workshop - Pôle Suds (INED)

4 December 2011, Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso)

Although the migration of young rural women to work as maids in the cities is a widespread practice in Africa, it is poorly understood and rarely covered in the academic literature. Yet given the over-representation of teenage girls in many capital cities, and the frequency of the practice in the rural areas where it has been studied, it appears to be a large-scale phenomenon. What are the drivers of this adolescent migration? How is it organized? What are its effects, and what stakes are involved? These questions are posed at individual level (who migrates? why? how does migration affect the transition to adulthood and later life?) but also at collective level (origin and destination communities) and at intermediate level (families, peer groups, associations, etc.). They involve a wide range of disciplinary fields (demography, sociology, economics, anthropology, politics, geography, etc.).

This meeting will provide an opportunity to exchange information and viewpoints on female youth labour migration in Africa. It aims to provide a panorama of current research on this question, to stimulate debate and to promote the development of an interdisciplinary synergy around this topic.
This workshop will take place as a side-meeting of the Sixth African Population Conference organized by the UAPS (5-9 December 2011, http://uaps2011.princeton.edu).

Contact:  migration-ouaga2011@listes.ined.fr  

Organizing Committee

• Véronique Hertrich, INED
• Mélanie Jacquemin, INED
• Marie Lesclingand, Univ. de Nice-URMIS/INED
• Clémentine Rossier, INED/ISSP