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Aspiring While Waiting: Temporality and Pacing of Ghanaian Stayer Youth's Migration Aspirations
[journal article]
Abstract Many youth in Global South countries, whose parents have migrated abroad while they have stayed, i.e., "stayer youth," also aspire to migrate. While the current literature depicts stayer youth as "waiting" to emigrate, connoting passivity, recent critical youth studies suggest the importance of cent... view more
Many youth in Global South countries, whose parents have migrated abroad while they have stayed, i.e., "stayer youth," also aspire to migrate. While the current literature depicts stayer youth as "waiting" to emigrate, connoting passivity, recent critical youth studies suggest the importance of centring young people's agency when focusing on their aspirations and experiences. This article investigates how stayer youth in Ghana "pace" their migration aspirations while "waiting." By observing how youth change their aspirations over time, we first distinguish between different aspirations according to when youth first aim to migrate. Second, we "follow" stayer youth after their secondary school graduation to understand how they seek to fulfil their migration aspirations and the strategies they adopt therein. We use ethnographic data from 38 Ghanaian "stayer" young people. Our analyses show that stayer youth adapt their decision‐making when they realise some misalignment between their migration aspirations and capabilities. By analysing their adaptation strategies, we emphasise stayer youth's agency despite structural forces confining them to what has been called "waithood."... view less
Keywords
Ghana; migration; international migration; parents; adolescent
Classification
Migration, Sociology of Migration
Free Keywords
international parental migration; migration aspiration; waithood; "left‐behind" youth
Document language
English
Publication Year
2022
Page/Pages
p. 129-137
Journal
Social Inclusion, 10 (2022) 4
Issue topic
Life Course Justice and Learning
ISSN
2183-2803
Status
Published Version; peer reviewed