Description:

Amélie Grysole, PhD candidate in sociology at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) and National Institute of Demographic Studies (INED)

Abstract: This paper explores the child fostering strategies of Senegalese migrants. Based on ethnographic material collected in a town district of Dakar, I study a specific form of international fostering involving children, born in their parents’ countries of destination (specifically United States and Italy) and currently living in their parents’ country of origin, Senegal. I first show how the national institutional contexts, such as the educational and childcare systems, the immigration policies, in both the parents’ countries of birth (Senegal) and the parents’ countries of destination (United States, Italy), shape the organization of transnational families. Migrant parents examine the advantages and drawbacks of origin and destination countries, when deciding where their children should be raised. However, in Senegal, children without migrant parents are also frequently affected by “internal mobility” in response, to parents’ work constraints, available space, family solidarity, and educational choices, amongst other reasons. I then discuss the differences between various care-giving arrangements (internal and international fostering) within the families that have been studied. Who benefits from the remittances and which collective or individual economic strategies are developed in these extended families? Using economic ethnography, I analyze how Senegal is chosen by the parents as a place to raise their children who are born abroad. I try to understand how the parents select the guardians who care for children. And, finally how this childcare strategy could be a part of a global project for the future?

Bio: Amelie Grysole is a PhD candidate in Sociology at the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences (EHESS) and the National Institute of Demographic Studies (INED) in Paris. She is currently a Visiting Student at the Brown University, welcomed by the Population Studies and Training Center. Her research interests include public policies and transnational families. Her work focuses on Senegalese migration and how families organize for their children's success. Her fieldwork mainly takes place in Senegal. However, some additional fieldwork is going to complete family portraits and stories with short stays in Italy and in the United States.