De acuerdo a la experiencia y tiempo que lleva laborando en Almacenes Buen Hogar, ¿A qué factores considera usted que son los

Within my research, the process of migration decision making was explored from the perspectives of the Kenyan and Nigerian women only. Children were not included as

participants in my research, but questions on their influence in the process were posed to the women who migrated as mothers which was the focus of part of my second research

question. The research question aimed to explore how the influence of others can be

considered in the migration decision-making process of the Kenyan and Nigerian women. In terms of children, based on the responses of the women, many mothers viewed their children as in need of protection and support that would prepare them for adulthood (Hutchins, 2011: 1224). One of the reasons why some of them had this view was due to the ages of their children at the time that migration was being considered. Patience’s three children were all under the age of 10; Odera had a newborn son; Afola had three children under the age of 12; Jennifer had two children under the age of 12, one in his early teens; Deon’s two children were in their mid-teens; and Agnes children’s ages ranged from ten to 20 years. In chapter three, I discussed how the women felt that they were responsible for providing and protecting their children. The women felt that the younger children depended on them for safety and comfort. But the relations with older children in their teens and their mothers were different

as often the relationship was one of interdependency that is women including their children in the migration decision-making process.

The fact that children were dependent on their parents meant that children had considerable influence in the migration decision-making process. For example, Patience explained that her children were not directly involved in the migration process as they were too young, stating that “it was my decision to move them”. However, she explained they indirectly influenced the decision to migrate as she wanted them to get a good education that would give them a good social status in Nigeria. Odera also knew that her migration plans would affect her newborn son as she debated on whether to migrate with or without him in the first instance.

The few cases where the mothers developed an interdependent relationship mostly concerned children in their mid-late teens (e.g. Deon, Naomi, Agnes). Acker’s (2000) best interests concept and future oriented consent approach applies to the mothers mentioned in this section as they were all making decisions on behalf of their children, considering the benefits that the latter would gain in the future regardless of their age. For instance, Deon developed an interdependent relationship with her children because when she received information about migrating to the UK, she presented the information to her children, as in her view, one cannot migrate without the support of the family. Agnes, on the other hand, established a different type of relationship with her eldest son who was at university at the time. She was considering his best interests, especially because he was a victim of

xenophobia whilst living in Botswana and that this was having an adverse effect on his psychological state. The relationship she established with her son differed from that of Deon and her children as Agnes was taking her son’s interest into consideration over her own. This relationship does not fit into Zehier’s child-adult relations (2001) descriptions but can be related to the best interest strategy as described by Ackers (2000).

Deon was making the decision to migrate at a time when she was threatened with unemployment just like Agnes’ husband who worked at the same hospital in Botswana. Finding employment became the primary motivation for both families, to support the household economy, which also took into account the needs of the children. Agnes was not threatened by unemployment but had to think about migrating to a location where she had no job and where she would become a ‘trailing’ wife and mother (Cooke, 2000). In addition, the negative attitudes the local community in Botswana had towards foreigners contributed to their decision-making. This means that the social, political and economic environment can contribute to the migration decision-making process as was the case for Deon and Agnes. In contrast with Hutchins’ study (2011), the mothers in my study argued that they were not acting in their self-interest; rather it was in the interests of their children. They revealed that many of the benefits that they wanted their children to have, such as education, would be instrumental in developing their future socio-economic status abroad or in Nigeria and Kenya.

In the next section, I focus on the needs of the children which the women took into account in the decision-making process. In the discussion, I identify some of De Jong and Fawcett’s expected values10 (1981) that the women hoped to achieve for their children. It is important to point out that the children’s expected values in this study are presumed by the mothers as they were acting in the children’s best interests and with the future oriented consent in mind. The aim is to demonstrate how the expected values of the children, presumed by the mothers, are incorporated in the decision-making process of the family. Based on the literature reviewed in this study, I have yet to identify any research that considers the role of presumed expected values of others on the migration decision-making process because the value expectancy model was designed to take into account the personal

values of the decision maker. Therefore, my contribution to this model is to demonstrate how the presumed values of others can also function within family migration decision-making.