“Let Them Make It Rain and Bling”: Unveiling Community Expectations towards Returned Migrants in Cameroon
Department of Social Work and Social Pedagogy, Ghent University, Henri Dunantlaan 2, 9000 Ghent, Belgium
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Academic Editor: Gregor Wolbring
Societies 2022, 12(1), 8; https://doi.org/10.3390/soc12010008
Received: 29 October 2021
/
Revised: 20 December 2021
/
Accepted: 27 December 2021
/
Published: 5 January 2022
In Africa, international migration to the Global North is often interpreted as a means to achieve upward social mobility. This article highlights the importance of considering the socio-economic and political transformations that form migration aspirations, especially among African youths. Simultaneously, increasing restrictive migration regimes impacts the extent to which migrants can meet the clauses in the moral economy of migration in their origin communities. We focus on (Anglophone) Cameroon, where international migration is referred to as “bushfalling”. A person who migrates to a Western society desires or is expected to return home to share the wealth he/she has accumulated. This interpretation of migration forms different perspectives regarding migrants and guides expectations towards returned migrants. However, little is known on how these expectations are defined and redefined in the society of return. Based on focus group discussions conducted among local community members, we show that the expectations were guided by the visa regimes of destination countries. Moreover, successful returnees were defined by their ability to be visible and create an impact after return. Thus, this article contributes more broadly to an African perspective on the meaning and impact of return migration.
View Full-Text
Keywords:
bushfalling; Cameroon; community expectations; return migration
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited
MDPI and ACS Style
Wanki, P.; Derluyn, I.; Lietaert, I. “Let Them Make It Rain and Bling”: Unveiling Community Expectations towards Returned Migrants in Cameroon. Societies 2022, 12, 8. https://doi.org/10.3390/soc12010008
AMA Style
Wanki P, Derluyn I, Lietaert I. “Let Them Make It Rain and Bling”: Unveiling Community Expectations towards Returned Migrants in Cameroon. Societies. 2022; 12(1):8. https://doi.org/10.3390/soc12010008
Chicago/Turabian StyleWanki, Presca, Ilse Derluyn, and Ine Lietaert. 2022. "“Let Them Make It Rain and Bling”: Unveiling Community Expectations towards Returned Migrants in Cameroon" Societies 12, no. 1: 8. https://doi.org/10.3390/soc12010008
Find Other Styles
Note that from the first issue of 2016, MDPI journals use article numbers instead of page numbers. See further details here.
