Migration and Social Class in Africa: Class-Making Projects in Translocal Social Fields

Drivers and trajectories of multinational migrations of West African international students

“…Class‐making projects are central to Africans' migratory trajectories inside and outside Africa (Coe & Pauli, 2020; Mulvey & Mason, 2022; Xu, 2023). Such projects were also relevant to the informants in our study, where academic careers are not only associated with social mobility but also closely interconnected with geographical mobility.…”

“…There were few possibilities for visa renewal or the conversion of student status to labour migrant status or other statuses. In such situations, students were compelled to grapple with the challenges of onward mobility by seeking new scholarships, additional education or employment opportunities across multiple countries (see also Coe & Pauli, 2020; Mulvey & Mason, 2022).…”

“…Countries in this geographic location include African countries formerly colonised by European powers (especially France and Britain). The people of West Africa have been through different phases of exploitation and colonial domination, in addition to years of political, economic, social and cultural transformations (Berriane, 2015; Coe & Pauli, 2020). However, West Africa is currently one of the fastest‐growing regions on the African continent, both demographically and economically.…”

Young lives on the move

“…Participants attended a variety of school tracks (academic, technical, and vocational tracks) or reception classes for recently arrived migrants (see also Chapter 4 for more information in the Belgian education system). Further, as is common for people who live transnational lives, the social class of participants and/or their parents varied depending on geographical context (see also Coe and Pauli 2020;Nieswand 2011). In Belgium, most of the participants were generally of lower socioeconomic background and lived in working-class neighbourhoods, some in social housing units.…”

“…Recent scholarship identifies travel to the origin country as providing young people access to luxurious spaces and higher status than in their country of residence(Gardner and Mand 2012;Wagner 2019). More generally, scholars are theorizing how migrants' experience of social class is related to geographical location(Coe and Pauli 2020).…”