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Title (eng)
Rootedness: Framing Interactions between Adult Migrants and their Non-Migrant Parents in Ghanaian Transnational Families
Author
Esther Asenso-Agyemang
Institute of African Studies, University of Ghana
Description (eng)

Transnational social interactions at the micro-level highlight how migrants and their non-migrant relations sustain various forms of exchanges that crisscross their spatial boundaries. Despite this, 'disembeddedness' and 'fluidity' have been highlighted as distinctive features of mobile subjects, whose local ties become weakened as a result of their mobilities. While connectedness and 'disembeddedness' seem contradictory, they demonstrate multiple dimensions of complex processes of change and continuity that characterise migrants' social experiences. This study uses ‘rootedness’ as a conceptual framework to capture the contradictions. The forms and expression of the concept are highlighted and analysed through interviews of twenty non-migrant parents in Ghana based on their interactions with their migrant offspring abroad from October 2018 to December 2020. The parents’ interviews are complemented by interviews with five of the migrants and other qualitative data-gathering methods that highlight the experi‐ ences of Ghanaian emigrants. Based on its various forms of expression, rootedness emphasises a strong sense of cultural bond to the homeland. The concept also high‐ lights the norm of reciprocity, and the ability of migrants to rupture normative influ‐ ences given the power their migration bestows on them. The analyses bring to the fore that migrants, amidst ruptures and transformations, also remain rooted in their homelands.

Keywords
GhanaGhanaian transnational families
Subject (eng)
ÖFOS 2012 -- 602001 -- African studies
Type (eng)
Language
[eng]
Persistent identifier
https://phaidra.univie.ac.at/o:1666090
Is in series
Title
Stichproben. Wiener Zeitschrift für kritische Afrikastudien
Volume
44
ISSN
1992-8610
Issued
2023
Number of pages
105-128, 23
Content
Details
Object type
PDFDocument
Format
application/pdf
Created
30.06.2023 04:33:38
Metadata