Non-formal apprenticeships for rural youth – questions that need to be asked

This piece examines the decision-making surrounding rural youths’ entry into non-formal apprenticeships and draws attention to issues that may make youth less interested in completing an apprenticeship or decrease the benefits of technical trainin

“If only I get enough money for a bicycle!” A study of childhoods, migration and adolescent aspirations against a backdrop of exploitation and trafficking in Burkina Faso

This paper focuses on adolescent children’s independent migration to rural towns and urban areas in search of work. International and national agencies tend to see this migration through the lens of crisis, whether as a result of parental ignorance or youngsters’ unruliness. Here, the author explores, on the one hand, how these perceptions correspond with the common perceptions of childhood and youth in rural areas, and on the other, how rural adolescents describe their mobility. In the intersection between different notions of childhood and youth that give rise to conflicting ideas about adolescents’ work and migration, the author draws attention to the adolescents’ own rationales, choices and strategies to pursue their quest for money and meet intergenerational expectation

Work opportunities and frictions for rural child migrants in West African cities

This chapter looks at the participation of rural children and youth in the urban labour market and, specifically, focuses on the first years of their migration. In Burkina Faso, the proportion of the working population employed informally was 74.3 per cent in 2001 but few studies have focused specifically on employment practices. This chapter examines the broad range of activities in which rural child and youth migrants engage, and the reasons behind their tactical choices as urban workers. The chapter addresses both diversities and similarities in children’s and youth’s experiences, and the transformation individuals undergo as they gain more knowledge about urban ways and the labour market. It is an empirical piece of work that demonstrates what constitutes young migrants’ negotiation of the urban informal economy in Burkina Faso

Child migrants in Africa

Child Migration in Africa explores the mobility of children without their parents within West Africa. Drawing on the experiences of children from rural Burkina Faso and Ghana, the book provides rich material on the circumstances of children's voluntary migration and their experiences of it. Their accounts challenge the normative ideals of what a 'good' childhood is, which often underlie public debates about children's migration, education and work in developing countries The comparative study of Burkina Faso and Ghana highlights that social networks operate in ways that can be both enabling and constraining for young migrants, as can cultural views on age- and gender-appropriate behaviour. The book questions easily made assumptions regarding children's experiences when migrating independently of their parents and contributes to analytical and cross-cultural understandings of childhood. Part of the groundbreaking Africa Now series, Child Migration in Africa is an important and timely contribution to an under-researched area

Reconfiguring migration: an introduction

Mobility patterns in Africa are changing. They never were fixed, but they have been embedded for centuries in the policy regimes regulating local, regional and global economies. However, currently, the intersection of global politics of securitization and African everyday politics governed by inequality, disenchantment, survival and aspiration has accelerated changes. This themed section is concerned with the social effects of these changes as Africans struggle to attain their goals, whether they are migrants or not

Child Migration in Africa

Child Migration in Africa explores the mobility of children without their parents within West Africa. Drawing on the experiences of children from rural Burkina Faso and Ghana, the book provides rich material on the circumstances of children's voluntary migration and their experiences of it. Their accounts challenge the normative ideals of what a 'good' childhood is, which often underlie public debates about children's migration, education and work in developing countries. The comparative study of Burkina Faso and Ghana highlights that social networks operate in ways that can be both enabling and constraining for young migrants, as can cultural views on age- and gender-appropriate behaviour. The book questions easily made assumptions regarding children's experiences when migrating independently of their parents and, by drawing parallels with children's migration in Latin America and Asia, contributes to analytical and cross-cultural understandings of childhood. Part of the groundbreaking Africa Now series, Child Migration in Africa is an important and timely contribution to an under-researched area