Renegotiating Obligations through Migration

Senegalese Transnationalism and the Quest for theRightDistance

Dados Bibliográficos

ID3619554
AutoresMaría Hernández-Carretero (0000-0003-0182-5429)
Ano2015
Volume41
Fascículo12
Páginas2021-2040
Data de publicação2015-10-15
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoNew Community (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0047-9586 • E-ISSN: 1469-9451
EditoraInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/1369183x.2015.1045462
OpenAlexW1843489337
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas11
Referências citadas31

This article explores the interplay between spatial and social distance and financial obligations and goals in the context of migration. On the basis of an ethnographic study of Senegalese migration to Spain, it discusses the idea that distance may be partly sought to gain leverage in renegotiating responses to redistributive demands and responsibilities that come at odds with goals of accumulation and investment. Financial prosperity may be thought easier to attain by temporarily distancing oneself but is also sought to gain a better capacity to assist others. Besides, both accumulation and redistribution contribute to migrants’ overall objective of becoming socioeconomically successful and gaining a respectable presence at home. Many migrants do not wish to break with or ostracise dependents and other relations, and expectations of redistribution often grow as a result of migration. Thus, rather than resolve the dilemma between accumulation and redistribution, migration transforms it. Seeking a balance, some migrants devise strategies to establish the right distance, in socially and morally acceptable terms, to retain control over financial priorities without undermining social ties. Too much distance could result in ostracism; too little might stifle or delay ambitions for savings and investments, which are considered a precondition for return

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19 · Dilemma · Economic growth · Economics · Labour economics · Leverage (statistics · Political science · Politics · Prosperity · Redistribution (election · Social distance · Sociology · Transnationalism · Diaspora, migration, transnational identity · Law · Migration and Labor Dynamics · Migration, Ethnicity, and Economy