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“Young, Female and Looking for Change: Migrant Girls’ Narratives in Addis Ababa”
Marina de Regt and Felegebirhan Belesti
Migrating out of Poverty Conference
March 28-29, 2017
SOAS, London
Abstract
In the past decade an increasing number of adolescent girls in Ethiopia have moved from villages and rural towns to Addis Ababa to improve their own lives and those of their families. While girls’ migration is in a way a ‘normality’, with historically girls migrating for domestic work, the dominant discourse in Ethiopia describes the migration of girls mainly in terms of trafficking and exploitation. In addition, migration is nowadays equated with international migration. Little is known about the experiences, life choices and aspirations of migrant girls who have migrated within the country. In this paper the migration narratives of adolescent girls in Addis Ababa are presented and analysed from a relational perspective (Huijsmans 2012; 2015) in order to counter the dominant discourse on migration in Ethiopia. This means that instead of categorising types of migration (internal versus international), motivations for migration (poverty, early marriage, abuse, etc.), classifications of migrants (gender, age, class, ethnicity, etc.), and type of work (such as domestic work and sex work), we take the lived experiences of migrant girls as the point of departure for our analysis of their agency and ways in which they tackle challenges they face. We analyse migrant girls’ agency in three ‘phases’ of their migration process, namely in the decision to migrate, in their lives in the city, and in their future aspirations. In doing so we intend to show that agency is situated relationally and shaped by a multitude of factors, with clear temporal and spatial dimensions. The paper is based on a qualitative study conducted in Addis Ababa in 2014, and in particular on the life stories of migrant girls working as sex workers.
We argue that the poverty discourse which dominates the discussion about migration in Ethiopia is insufficient to explain the large number of girls that opt for migration, within the country and across borders. In addition to the desire to help their families, many girls migrate to escape oppressive gender regimes, such as early marriages and the limited freedom of movement. At the time of leaving, migrant girls’ objectives, plans and motivations for migration were embedded in their childhood social relations and closely interlinked with their status as girls and their position in the household. Yet, over a period of time, the gender and age power relations shifted, as a result of the spatial shift linked to migration and their experiences at destination. This shift intersected with a process of personal growth and development of an adult identity with the capacity to decide about the direction one’s life was going to take, even in contrast sometimes with norms. The narratives of migrant girls demonstrate agency and resilience in coping with situations of abuse, exploitation and violence. The narratives also show that the trafficking discourse falls short, especially when it concerns internal migration. Girls may migrate with the help of others but this does not mean that they are by definition deceived, and that those that facilitate their migration benefit financially. Thirdly, we have shown that there is a link between internal and international migration. Girls often find themselves in serial migration and succeed in migrating cross border. Yet, the challenges encountered are very similar, and many girls share the same experiences. They left the social control of their families, but were confronted with new forms of gender oppression in the place of destination.
Introduction
Migration is a hot topic in Ethiopia. Television series involve migration stories, billboards show Western Union advertisements, radio programmes try to warn against the risks of migration with a special emphasis on trafficking. Most families have at least one family member that lives abroad. While Ethiopia used to be one of the primary destinations for refugees and migrants in Africa[1], it is increasingly becoming a sending country of migrants. The main destinations are the Middle East, South Africa and North America and Europe, yet Ethiopians can be found in other parts of the world as well. The Ethiopian diaspora is one of the biggest in the world.[2] Local and international organizations in Ethiopia have carried out numerous studies about the increasing number of people that migrate, and many Ethiopians have graduated with theses about migration issues.[3] The main focus of these studies has been the increasing number of women that migrate to the Middle East to become domestic workers. While reliable statistics are lacking, hundreds of thousands women have migrated in the past two decades, mainly to Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States but also to Lebanon, Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar and Yemen.
The dominant narrative in Ethiopia about migration consists of two contradictory elements. First, migration is seen as the only way in which people can improve their livelihoods; and second, women who migrate are trafficked and exploited and gain very little from their migration.[4] The narrative thus has a very clear gender aspect: while migration is seen as positive and the only way to improve one’s livelihood for women as well as men, female migrants are stigmatized as victims of exploitation and sexual abuse. The negative impact of migration will follow them upon return home. Despite all the challenges that they have faced, and regardless of the financial success of their migration, they are seen as unclean and exploited. This applies in particular to young and under-aged women. In addition, the main discourse on migration in Ethiopia equates migration with international migration. Yet the number of people that migrate internally is still bigger than the number of international migrants.[5] Among these internal migrants there are also many adolescent girls and young women, who leave their places of origin for a variety of reasons, ranging from poverty to escaping early marriages and abduction and from educational aspirations to a desire to break free from oppressive gender regimes. The girl’s decision in migrating to the cities among many reasons is a way of asserting their agency in moving forward with life. However, in most cases they are faced with daily challenges of moving to the city to which they are new. This further escalates their challenges of adapting to the life and finding new ways of subverting the problems they face. In the process they make and remake decisions that determine their life.
In the dominant discourse in Ethiopia, internal migration is seen as a lesser choice than international migration; those who migrate internally would benefit less from their migration than those who migrate internationally. International migrants would be able to earn more money and thus be able to remit more money and help their families in a structural way. Internal migration would not lead to structural improvements because of the low salaries in Ethiopia. Internal migration is sometimes seen as a stepping stone for international migration. In this paper we will focus on the migration narratives of adolescent girls who migrated to Addis Ababa in order to counter the dominant discourse on migration in Ethiopia in three ways. First of all, following King and Skeldon[6] we are of the opinion that internal and international migration are too often studied as two separate fields while they are often closely related. Second, we want to add gender and age, and in particular their intersection, as important axes of difference to the study of migration and mobility. Migration is predominantly a youthful activity. While there is an increasing body of literature about young people’s migration aspirations and experiences, gender is often lacking as an analytical lens.[7] Most studies focus on boys and young men, and in cases in which girls and young women are included, gender is not problematized. As mentioned above, girls’ migration is very often framed in discourses around trafficking and (sexual) exploitation, which leaves little room for girls’ agency. Third, we think that narratives, and in particular life stories, are a very useful method to study the intersection of gender and age. In addition, they allow for a life course perspective, showing the moments of agentic power girls can execute in different phases of their lives. The stories of the migrant girls show their agency and resilience in a context of structural inequalities.
The paper is based on a qualitative study about adolescent girls’ migration in Ethiopia, which was part of a larger research project including Bangladesh and Sudan.[8] The main research methods were a qualitative survey among migrant girls in Addis Ababa and returnees from the Middle East, life story interviews with migrant girls, interviews with parents and peers, focus group discussions, and expert interviews. In this paper we will mainly use the life story interviews collected with migrant girls working as sex workers in Addis Ababa in 2014. We will first describe our theoretical framework, and then discuss and analyze three “phases” in the lives of migrant girls, namely the decision to migrate, life in the city, and their future aspirations.
A relational approach to girls’ migration
International migration is the main focus in contemporary migration studies. Castles, de Haas and Miller[9] dub the end of the twentieth century “the age of migration,” referring to the large number of people that cross borders for a multitude of reasons. Yet, internal migration is still very important in many places of the world, and in some countries even more significant than international migration.[10] This is especially the case in developing countries, where migration is a complex phenomenon consisting of rural-urban, rural-rural, urban-rural and urban-urban migration, and various other forms.[11] Reliable statistics are often lacking because internal migrants are in many cases not registered. Aina[12] argues that the division between internal and international migration is rather problematic in the African context as national borders are of a relatively recent date, and Africans have always been migrating across “borders”. While acknowledging the differences between internal and international migration, King and Skeldon[13] argue that it may be very productive to study these two forms of migration in relation to each other. “(…) internal and international migrations are generated by similar forces and, despite the crossing of an international boundary as an important distinguishing feature, close linkages exist between them.”[14]
In Ethiopia internal migration is also much bigger than international migration; historically people have been migrating internally for a large variety of reasons. Ethiopians have experienced large-scale internal migration and resettlements as the result of famine, poverty, environmental causes and government-related policies[15], and as the result of rural-urban migration and trafficking[16]. The 2007 Population and Housing Census of Ethiopia shows that rural-urban migration has contributed to population growth in urban areas [17] where people especially the youth are migrating to urban cities in search of economic opportunities. International migration is of a much more recent phenomenon; only after the downfall of Mengistu in 1991 freedom of movement became a constitutional right. While an increasing number of Ethiopians have migrated abroad, including many girls and young women, international migration is still relatively small in scale compared to internal migration. Most studies on contemporary migration in and from Ethiopia mention poverty as a major driving factor. Yet, under the layer of poverty and the need to assist families back home there are multiple other factors which have to be situated within the wider changes that have been taking place in Ethiopia in the past twenty years.[18]
The large scale migration of Ethiopian women to the Middle East is a good example of the “feminization of migration”. The increasing number of women who migrate independently, often crossing large geographical distances, for example, to become domestic workers in wealthier countries, has led to the recognition that gender matters in migration.[19] In addition, scholars of gender and migration have pointed to the different framing of migration narratives of male and female migrants; despite the large number of studies that show that women often take the decision to migrate themselves, and also benefit from their migration, women’s migration continues to be framed in the context of trafficking and exploitation. This is particularly so when it concerns adolescent girls and young women. Girls’ migration is almost automatically equated with trafficking. This is despite the fact that an increasing number of scholars have pointed to the fact that child migrants also have agency and are not mere victims of brokers, smugglers and traffickers.[20] In addition, it is important to see child migrants as social actors and not as an essentialised and homogeneous category: “Children's lived experiences of migration are multiple since their social position is, amongst other things, intersected by the form of migration the children engage in, contextual particularities and cross-cutting relations such as gender, generation and class”.[21]
In the past decade an increasing body of literature has appeared about independent child migration, yet relatively few studies have included the experiences of adolescent girls. Adolescence is a particular phase in the lives of children; a period of transition in which major changes take place, which may influence one’s life course. Bucholtz[22] points out that age is not the only important factor that determines adolescence. Youth is a flexible and social category and is based on locality and context-specific practices and norms. This applies in particular to adolescent girls. They are increasingly being identified as a crucial segment of the population, whose successful transition into adulthood is of major importance for their own lives and those of the people around them.[23] The migration of adolescent girls can have major implications for their transition into adulthood.[24] Migration can be a response to the lack of opportunities at home, and for some it is a response to acute family needs, for others to their unmet aspirations. In discussing globalized identities, Paula Fass[25] sees adolescents as trying to improve themselves and pursue their identity by working, consuming, rejecting and rebelling against parental authority. She argues that it is not helpful to imagine adolescents either as helpless or passive in their quest for change and migration.