The Janus face of development brokers across migration borders

Abstract

Employing an ethnographic approach, I analyse the agentive practices of a codevelopment project named Africoop, showing how it navigates the migration-development field by blending egalitarianism rights-based concerns with hierarchical political authority, foregrounding economic neoliberalism and translating development. Africoop advocated for migrants rights and opened up opportunities for social mobility and also reproduced gender asymmetries and power relations among Italian donors and Ghanaian recipients. By examining the organisational level of brokerage and the career trajectories of the main leaders, I unravel how social nets, aspirations and biographical paths are interwoven to reconfigure the brokers' representativeness and accountability across migration borders.

Agents of order? Brokerage and empowerment in development and conflict

“…Finally, a more successful example of empowerment can be found in the example presented by Marabello (2022) of the organisational broker Africoop , a co‐development project involving Ghanaian migrant leaders in Italy. Africoop was successful in ‘speaking out for migrants' rights and creating opportunities for social mobility’ (p. 9).…”

“…And because, as mentioned above, they face little competition from alternative brokers, the stage is set for a form of ‘coercive brokerage’ that mainly serves the interests of these milícias rather than those of their communities. Marabello's (2022) study of a Ghanaian migrant organisation in Italy provides another example of how a relatively strong bargaining position of a ‘development broker’ relates to the character of broader brokerage networks. As Africoop could provide authorities with a relatively rare channel to connect with Ghanaian migrants, this association could become relatively successful in obtaining both useful contacts as well as business opportunities.…”