Contenu du sommaire : CERPAA CERPOD ORSTOM – Migrations africaines

Rapid demographic growth in Africa has not been accompanied by economic development. It has generated important flows to the North. Family planning programs will not be sufficient to solve the problems caused by the demographic growth and they will most likely increase in the future. Controls of these flows are unikely to be effective. Under these conditions, only the economic development of the South will allow the limitation of outmigration.

The West African migratory field constitutes a fluctuating reality which is settled on a bipolary field (with historic and linguistic foundations) and on a field engaged in a double process of exclusion and competition. France, Italy and Iberian Peninsula receive the turbulences of West African migrations confronted with other migrations from the « South » in EEC and are the witnesses of an east-west spatial redeployment un precedented. These mutations call the relevance of the symmetry between the old colonial field and the migratory field into question. As many other southern countries, the Iberian Peninsula becomes the « new gateway » for the West African migrations within the EEC.

This paper deals with the policy of internal and international migrations especially its determinants, instruments and results. The authors demonstrate that it was a means to provide workers for Ivorian agriculture. They identify, demographic, economic and historical factors. Then they analyse internal migration with special emphasis on the instruments used, selective regional allocation of jobs and passing of landholding rights. As for international migrations, conventions linking Cote-d'Ivoire and Haute-Volta or Cote-d'Ivoire and France are examined. Finally, the most recent trends are examined: internal and international migration policy evolved under the constraints of the economic and political crisis at the 1980's. They conclude that this policy was inefficient because it was unable to regulate migratory flows.

The Soninke and Poular migration from the Valley of the Senegal river have historical pre-colonial roots. The colonial and post-colonial economies have confirmed and reinforced the migratory models of both ethnic groups. The data of the 1982 survey highlight similarities and differences in the demographic indicators of their migrations, which can be explained in relation to their respective pasts.

In 1993, out migration from five villages in the upper valley of the Senegal river appears to be as intensive as it was ten years ago, but with the difference that new social groups are now concerned: children, women, and older men. Migration of family groups is essentially characteristic of international migrants, although all the members of the family do not always move to the same place. Besides pendular and incomplete migrations, settlement in Dakar can be observed, probably corresponding to a progressive severage from the village of origin. Exogamy and non residential polygamy also contribute to a multilocalization of the family and of the community of origin, thus strenghtening the flows of migrants, especially to Dakar.

Our purpose is to study the migrations of a Malian population, the Dogon (district of Sangha, Bandiagara cliff). We distinguish three patterns of emigration: emigration through West African frontiers (mainly Ivory Coast, Ghana), internal movements and a displacement towards the plain of Seno Gondo. Each pattern of migration has its own factors with regards to age, gender, nuptiality and geographical origin of migrant people. International migrations are essentially achieved by men. Women's movements could be characterized by a proximity with the village of origin. Women move in the direction of the plain, more rarely towards the other Malian regions, and least in Western Africa. Most of international migrants are single, while married people have chosen internal movements. The choice of the destination is linked with the geographical origin. We conclude by a sociological analysis of the causes and consequences of emigration in the Dogon society.

The tendency of the international migrants to invest in plots located on the outskirts of Dakar has helped to extend and add value to spaces hitherto characterized by their instability. Depending on how long the emigrant has been gone and the country in which he has settled, and according to personal or collective investment strategies, real-estate investments assume specific morphologies and purposes, on a neighborhood-wide scale. Semi-rural Pikine is characterized by modest family investments which are recent and irregular ; Grand-Dakar and Grand-Yoff by excessive speculation on extremely densely-packed apartment buildings ; the Parcelles Assainies (Drained Plots) by trim little apartment buildings which are gradually becoming dense, where the migrants are making an attempt to combine a family-oriented investment strategy with a speculative one. As the emigrant's financial means increase, and as a by-product of the passage of time, the international migrant's strategy, initially family-oriented, tends to become more speculation-oriented. The investor-migrant continually uses various tactics in his efforts to achieve a precarious balance between the constraints of financial profitability on one hand, and, on the other, social obligations, which are no less important.

As far as we know, anthropologists specialized in sorcery have never studied the relationships between sorcery and migration. Cameroonese living in Paris refer to sorcery at different stages of their migration, but different types of social relationships are involved depending on whether France or Cameroon is considered. We show that Cameroonese analyse migration in terms of the control of the use of magic forces. We therefore demonstrate that beyond the ethnic and social diversity of Cameroon, sorcery is a means of power in Cameroon and a value which contributes to the strengthening of African identity in France.

Education and socialization of African children in the Parisian region is often considered as a source of problems by those institutional actors dealing with them. The shift from a revolving migration from sahel countries in a settlement migration has brought to the forefront new social actors (migrant women and their children) and different educational practices, as far as food and hygiene are concerned. These must be taken into account by professionals specialized in infant care and they frequently generate conflicts. This paper illustrate some of the problems revealed by interviews completed in Paris with Soninke mothers and professionals.