This special issue addresses the imagination of futures 'away from home' in a globalising world. While a growing number of migration scholars have taken into account that migration considerations are always socially embedded and culturally informed, the processes at work among a mounting number of (young) men and women throughout the world, who are convinced that a better life can only be found 'away from home', have been notably understudied. This special issue goes beyond the study of migration aspirations as a question of migration only. It focuses on the specific contexts (in five different countries) within which migration dreams are born, and sometimes even cultivated. It explores the sociocultural embedding of these aspirations by investigating the interpretation of local realities versus global possibilities, and examines how the aspirations of so many worldwide link up to the wider interconnections between globalisation and the sociocultural, political and economic transformations 'back home'.
Recent studies show that the numbers of aspiring migrants continue to be on the increase worldwide not only in the typical emigration countries in the South but also in the usual destination countries in the North. Yet, while migration theorists have recently included the micro perspective of individual agency and sociocultural logics in their search for the engine behind the migration flows, far less research has been done on the sociocultural embeddedness of the imaginations of aspiring migrants, most of whom will never migrate. In Senegal, an increasing large number of men and women are very focused on transnational migration. This article tries to unravel the knot as to what lies at the core of this seeming national preoccupation with migration out of Senegal. Its conclusion suggests that the pervasive desire of so many is rooted in the way in which the economic claims of family members and friends are culturally informed.
HIV prevalence in Senegal is less than 1%, a success generally attributed to the country's quick response to the nascent epidemic of the 1980s and its continued efforts to curtail the spread of HIV. However, as the bulk of the healthcare infrastructure and support for HIV-positive individuals and AIDS patients are located in urban areas, there remains limited information on HIV and AIDS prevalence in rural areas. Several focus group discussions held with small-holder farmers in 2006, in the regions of Kolda and Tambacounda, Senegal, in the framework of a regional food-security development programme, revealed the growing vulnerability of rural populations to HIV and AIDS. Because current HIV/AIDS campaigns are strongly influenced by generalised, internationally formulated guidelines that fail to take into account the cultural particularities of the Senegalese context, the initial positive impact of these campaigns has dramatically decreased and at-risk behaviour in rural Senegal has been found to be on the increase. The article argues that in order for HIV/AIDS campaigns to have an impact there is an urgent need for evidence-based approaches built on a deeper understanding of the local socio-cultural situation through interdisciplinary research and collaboration.
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