Elsevier

Geoforum

Volume 37, Issue 2, March 2006, Pages 256-272
Geoforum

Imagining migration: Placing children’s understanding of ‘moving house’ in Malawi and Lesotho

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2005.02.004Get rights and content

Abstract

Research pertaining to children’s geographies has mainly focused on children’s physical experiences of space, with their ‘imagined geographies’ receiving far less attention. The few studies of children’s imagined geographies that exist tend to focus on children’s national identities and their understanding of distant places. However, children’s lives are not necessarily static and they often move between places. Research has not so far considered children’s images of these transitional spaces or how such images are constructed.

Through an examination of over 800 thematic drawings and stories, regarding ‘moving house’, produced by children aged 10–17 years in urban and rural communities of Lesotho and Malawi, this paper explores southern African children’s representations of migration. The research considers how ideas of migration are culturally-constructed based on notions of family, home and kinship, particularly in relation to the fluid family structure characteristic of most southern African societies. The results suggest that most children imagine migration as a household rather than an individual process, rarely including micro-migrations between extended family households in their drawings. Further, children’s images of migration are place-rooted in everyday life experiences. Their representations concentrate on the reasons for migration, both negative and positive, which are specifically related to their local social and environmental situations and whether house moves take place locally or over longer distances. The paper concludes by exploring the implications of these conceptualisations of moving house for children’s contemporary migration experiences, particularly in light of changing family structures due to the effects of the HIV/AIDS pandemic.

Introduction

Drawing on research with children in four southern African communities, this paper explores the meanings that children attach to migration. Specifically, the paper aims to understand how migration, as a social process, is played out through transitional spaces and how it is constructed in relation to familiar experiences and surroundings. Further, the paper explores the implications of these imagined conceptions of migration in light of changing patterns of mobility across the region. We focus on the views of southern African children for three reasons.

First, migration research has neglected children’s migration principally focusing on the movements of adults or families (McKendrick, 1999, Young and Ansell, 2003). Despite this, children do engage in migration (Dobson and Stillwell, 2000, Young, 2004). Their experiences are not only valid, but often different from those of adults and therefore worthy of consideration.

Second, there is a long history of migration throughout southern Africa, with mobility often highlighted in the academic literature as one of the essential and intrinsic features of everyday survival (Dodson, 1998, Murray, 1981, Townsend, 1997). Therefore, extended family and household structures are highly fluid and it is not uncommon for children to move (with or without other household members). It is not unusual for them to live away from their parents and birth place for extended periods (Barnett and Blaikie, 1992).

Third, the incidence of migration among children is rapidly increasing in response to the devastating effects of the HIV/AIDS pandemic across the region. Previous research has demonstrated that children increasingly move place because of their role as carers; in order to receive care; or to make a living. Robson (2000) discusses the caring role of children highlighting that households often rely on extended family networks, where girls engage in rural–urban migration to care for sick relatives. Recently, the informal social security system that operates in the form of extended family obligations has increased migration within many AIDS-affected communities (now also urban–rural), as orphaned children are often cared for by relatives (Munthali and Ali, 2000, Young and Ansell, 2003). There is a clear need to understand, not only the patterns of migration undertaken by children in such circumstances, but also the context of cultural meanings within which migrations take place and the implications of this for potential future movements.

The paper beings by considering two literatures, which have illustrated the need for research to address children’s imagined migration experiences: the call for more culturally-informed migration research and the emerging work on children’s imaginative geographies.

Since the early 1990s there has been a move among population geographers to begin engaging with the cultural circumstances surrounding migration and calling for greater awareness of the rootedness of migration within everyday life experiences rather than simply focusing on statistical assessments of demographic change (Findlay and Li, 1999, Halfacree, 1995, Halfacree and Boyle, 1993, McHugh, 2000, Skeldon, 1995). Prior to this, little work focused on explaining and understanding such links, despite Fielding (1992, p. 201) noting that migrations are ‘culturally produced and culturally expressed’.

The last decade has, however, witnessed the emergence of a culturally-informed literature with authors heralding the importance of ethnography in migration research (see for example, Gutting, 1996, Findlay and Li, 1997, Lawson, 2000, Potts, 1995). Migrants’ experiences are increasingly understood as socially-constructed and politically, economically and culturally situated (Lawson, 2000). More recently, Englund (2002a) has called for research regarding migrants’ lived experiences to transcend the usual place boundaries of origin and destination, illustrating the emplacement of migrants’ ‘other’ global identities within their migrant locality. This has resulted in some studies more deeply exploring the links between family and migration and the broader societal conditions that influence migration decision-making (Boyle et al., 2003). Despite this, children’s understandings and experiences of migration have largely been excluded from population geography research and this led McKendrick (2001) to call for greater recognition that their experiences are also valid. Similarly, this paper argues that we should not only be interested in the roles of place and culture in directly shaping (child) migrants’ experiences (cf Gustafson, 2001, Meijering and Van Hoven, 2003, Walters, 2000), but also how they shape wider discourses surrounding migration. This is especially important for children in southern Africa given that they are engaging in more independent migration due to the effects of HIV/AIDS on families and communities (Young and Ansell, 2003). For this reason, we consider how particular place-related and culturally contextualised experiences influence local perceptions regarding what it means to migrate and how perceptions of the imagined ‘other’ are implicated in children’s understandings of decisions to move.

Research pertaining to children’s geographies has mainly focused on children’s physical experiences of space and place, with their ‘imagined geographies’ receiving far less attention. Recently, a few studies have emerged considering children’s images of ‘other’ places, both familiar and unfamiliar. The former have, for example, focused on street children’s conceptions of ‘home’ (Beazley, 2000), where romanticised notions of a welcoming, happy environment submerge memories of the changing circumstances and difficult situations which prompted migration to the street. Hegnst (1997) also draws on imaginings of the familiar for German children’s constructions of national identity. Hegnst (1997) however, argues that children’s construction of national identities is based on their differentiating ‘self’ from ‘other’. He illustrates this by reference to interactions between European children in their home country and immigrant children.

Children’s understanding of, often unfamiliar, distant places has also been the focus of work seeking to consider imagined geographies of the ‘other’. Drawing on Said’s (1995) work regarding imaginative geography, Holloway and Valentine (2000) consider how British and New Zealand children imagine each other’s life experiences and national identities. They illustrate that these imaginings are defined by previous experiences and stereotypes gained through media and entertainment, which produce over-generalised pictures of other people and places.

Although Hegnst’s (1997) paper demonstrates that notions of the other are often constructed in relation to migrants’ identities, discussions relating to children’s imagined geographies are related to static, fixed conceptions of space. As Hegnst (1997) hints at, children’s lives are not necessarily static and they often move between places. This is particularly important within the southern African context where migration is central to daily life and families are stretched across space. The mobile aspect of children’s lives in this context, where they move between households of the extended family, has received little attention. Therefore, although consideration of migrants’ lived experiences has begun to infiltrate migration research, no attention has been given to how children construct their images of these transitional spaces.

Like most southern African countries, where societies are frequently characterised by more than one form of migration (see Frayne and Pendleton (2002) for an example), Malawi and Lesotho have long histories of both internal and external migration. Historically, both countries supplied plentiful labour to the mines elsewhere in southern Africa, and also in Malawi to the tea, coffee and sugar estates within the country. This mainly took the form of long-term (but temporary) male labour migration. The Government of Malawi reduced the external migration substantially in the 1970s following independence, although migration to estates still continued (Englund, 1999). Lesotho’s external labour migration was mainly to the South African gold mines. Crush et al. (1999) note that during the 1980s, when the mining industry was at its height, an estimated 60% of Lesotho’s male workforce were migrants. The end of apartheid and changes in the mining industry have, however, reduced the flow of migrant workers to South Africa from elsewhere in the region. The number of Basotho men working in South African mines halved over the decade from 1990 (Turner, 2001), and migration from Malawi to the mines ceased completely following a dispute over HIV testing (Crush, 2000). Despite this, the populations of both countries still engage in considerable spatial mobility although the processes influencing this migration have changed. The result is a complicated and diverse contextualisation of what it means to move in both places.

The Malawi 1987 Population and Housing Census recorded that nearly 50% of the population were currently residing outside their birth district (National Statistical Office, 1994). Although now rather dated, this nevertheless demonstrates a high level of mobility within the country.2 Migration to tea, coffee and tobacco estates in the southern and northern regions exemplify rural–rural migration (Kydd and Christensen, 1982). Estates are often perceived as a source of employment and in some areas labour migration is viewed nostalgically because in the past it brought wealth to rural areas (Englund, 1999). Englund (2002b) points out that Malawi’s urban areas have also expanded since independence and that rural–urban migration has formed a major part of this increase. Englund, 2002a, Englund, 2002b does not view this migration as a permanent transition but rather as a simultaneous urban/ rural experience, noting that a migrant’s stay in town is related to aspirations to improve their village life.

Migrants’ experiences of their home place are usually favourable. Urban areas are not considered places of belonging and migrants often have idealised notions of their village origin, ultimately expecting to return. Those who express no desire to return to their birth-place usually relate this to conflict and hostility prior to their migration, which is often associated with witchcraft (Englund, 2002b). Englund (2002a) further explores how migrants’ previous experiences are ‘emplaced’ within the social and cultural spaces of their new locality and how this can create subsequent sites of contestation. In particular, he draws on the conflict between Muslim migrants and locals, who hold traditional beliefs, in Chinsapo township in Lilongwe. The resistance of migrants to accept the traditional occult-based rituals, because they conflict with Islamic religious beliefs, creates internal hostility in the township. This illustrates how cultural baggage impacts upon migrants’ experiences (Meijering and Van Hoven, 2003).

In Lesotho, although fluidity has always been an important characteristic of the extended family system with members moving between households, migration has historically been perceived as labour migration (most notably to the South African mines). Particularly during the 1970s and 1980s such external labour migration was a way of life for many families, with men spending long periods absent from home (Murray, 1981). Today, in light of the falling price of gold, mechanisation and professionalisation within the industry causing retrenchment, there are fewer Basotho working in the mines. Migration between Lesotho and South Africa is, however, still extensive as the country’s complete enclosure within South Africa means border controls are fairly relaxed (Sechaba Consultants, 2002). Although men still cross the border to engage in mining and farm labouring, this has sharply declined. Sechaba Consultants (2002) identified that although 65% of men over the age of 44 had worked in South Africa (47% in the mines), only 27% (19% in the mines) of 25–44 year olds and 7% (2% in the mines) of 15–24 year olds had crossed the border for work purposes. Instead, migrants to South Africa are now increasingly likely to be female migrants (in some cases daily) in order to trade and engage in business (Dodson, 1998). Migration to the border areas within Lesotho is attractive for similar purposes.

Another issue which has recently received attention concerning migration within Lesotho is the impact of cattle raiding which is particularly acute along the border area, as raiders steal from villages on the other side, but also further into the mountains (Kynock and Ulicki, 2001). This has had a significant impact on rural communities and households. Livestock holdings and production have reduced leaving many families in difficult situations and escalated fear, tension and mistrust among village communities, with the poor invariably stigmatised. Neighbours implicate each other in stock thieving and many are now abandoning their villages to seek work in South Africa or other Lesotho towns (Kynock and Ulicki, 2001). Internally, the rural and mountainous areas of Lesotho are losing population to the three northwestern districts of Maseru, Leribe and Berea (Kingdom of Lesotho, 1998). It is estimated that Maseru is growing at more than 7 percent a year, associated with employment opportunities (mainly taken by women) in the rapidly growing garment industry, which now employs more Basotho then the South African mines (Sechaba Consultants and Geoffrey Payne and Associates, 2002, ILO, 1998). Further, young people are migrating into the towns to seek employment and better access to services (ILO, 1998). Lesotho is thus witnessing changes in migration patterns.

Mobility within southern Africa extends beyond family and/or labour migration, households being marked by a ‘fluid family structure’ (de Haan, 2000, p. 10, see also de Haan, 1999). Barnett and Whiteside (1999) state that these fluidities result in constantly changing forms, meanings and relationships within the extended family: patterns explored among the Basotho by Murray (1981). Households are spread out, through and across communities, sharing labour and food among disparate family members. In such societies the household can refer not only to those residing within a single physical compound, but also to the wider extended family. Extended families tend to have both urban and rural members and a high level of interaction occurs between the two.

As noted in the introduction, children are particularly migratory within these fluid structures, moving to assist relatives, for education or to undertake chores. In Lesotho, some boys spend several months a year at remote cattle posts looking after the household’s livestock. Recently, migration has increased (including between urban and rural areas) within many AIDS-affected communities, as children move to stay with relatives. In 1993 (before AIDS) 22.4% of Lesotho households contained children who were not the offspring of the household head, by 1999 this had already risen to 32.8% (UNICEF, 1999). Children affected by AIDS in this way move for a number of reasons but principally to receive care, gain access to basic needs resources and in some instances to provide care for sick relatives (Young and Ansell, 2003).

Section snippets

The research

Within a wider study concerning the experiences of young people migrating as a consequence of the AIDS pandemic, we sought to explore the differing meanings young people attach to migration. The research was conducted in urban and rural locations in two southern African countries (see Fig. 1). Malawi, with its relatively long-standing experience of AIDS-affected communities, was selected for comparison with Lesotho, which is only now beginning to feel such impacts. To explore a range of places

Children’s images: the moving household

Given that many children engage in independent micro-migrations between the households of the extended family, it might be expected that this would inform children’s images of migration. However, micro-migrations were seldom featured. The images children presented suggested they saw migration as something that moved people away from the various households of their extended family. Migration was viewed as a movement of rather than within the family, each extended family dwelling being seen as

‘Placing’ migration in southern Africa: images from Malawi and Lesotho

The importance of familiarity and experience to children’s imaginings is demonstrated through their differing constructions of migration. In the same way that children in Holloway and Valentine’s (2000) paper drew on familiar media representations for imagining other places, the children in each of the four communities discussed here, also drew on the familiar for constructing an often distant abstract process, which only about half of them had directly experienced. The four communities focused

Imagining migration: implications and conclusions

The images of migration analysed in this paper reveal that southern African children imagine the transitional spaces of migration in different ways depending on the social, economic, and cultural dimensions of the communities in which they currently reside. This emphasises the importance of considering the circumstances surrounding migration and the need for researchers to engage with understanding the links between migration and wider society (Fielding, 1992, Findlay and Li, 1997). For example

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