RECURSOS FÍSICOS

Previous studies have focused on the impact of the socio-economic roles of women amongst the Igbo of Nigeria and the role it played in the decision to migrate (Reynolds, 2006). Others have explored how sociocultural expectations function in the economic migration patterns of Igbo people in general (Okanga, 2003). However, Okanga’s research did not indicate whether the sociocultural expectations of women impacted on the migration decision-making process.

In the previous section, I identified different socialising agents and institutions responsible for transmitting sociocultural perceptions of women’s role in the societies where the women I interviewed resided. In this section, I discuss how some of these perceptions play a subtle and almost invisible role in the migration decision-making process. They could be linked to some of the theories of migration decision-making, namely the place utility model, which explains the dissatisfaction potential migrants feel with the utilities in their society, at a particular life stage (Wolpert, 1965). Demographic characteristics such as age, marital status, social class and education demonstrated differences between the women and their influence in the home and hence on the decision-making processes. Although it emerged that the majority of the women in this study migrated for the kind of reasons identified in other research (e.g. for employment, further education or better life), the sociocultural

perceptions of women’s role in their communities can be seen as an additional reason for migrating.

My findings reveal that sociocultural perceptions of women’s role in society can motivate women to consider migration. Migration was often initiated to escape the stereotypes associated with their marital status as single, divorced or widowed mothers in their respective societies. This appeared to be more the case with three Nigerian women than with the Kenyan women as Odera, Ethel, Afola (Nigerian) were single, divorced and married mothers respectively and the perceptions held of them in their society disadvantaged them. Jennifer (Kenyan), on the other hand, was a single mother but was not migrating to escape the stigma associated with her marital status. She provided a secondary reason for her migration which was to rectify the relations with her family after the traumatic experience she had as a rape victim that had strained their relations. However, she explained that this was not her primary reason for migrating.

Ethel (Nigerian), for example, was a divorced single mother at the time she planned her migration. She was once married to a pilot, which meant she had a high social status in her community. Without going into much detail, she indicated that when she divorced she opted to migrate with her children as most of her family were already in the UK. She was not stigmatised by her status as a divorced mother, but she appeared to have lost her social status in the eyes of her community. Although it was an interesting avenue to explore, she chose not to elaborate on her experience as she was participating in the focus group interview. Odera and Afola (Nigerian), on the other hand, were escaping the stigma that had befallen them. In Odera’s case, she had already considered migrating but having a child out of wedlock sped up the process. She explained that,

“there is this stigma you know, being a single mum you know, back home. They look at it as a curse. How can you say you are a single mum? It doesn’t exist. So that was one of the things that I was saying, find it wasn’t working back home let me just come here and start afresh”.

Odera observed a common feature that other scholars have identified in their research on motherhood in Nigeria; that is, the sociocultural perception of single mothers who are not positively accepted by members of society (Makinde, 2004). In the case of Odera, it became her primary reason for migrating.

Afola’s experience differs from that of Odera. She too had planned to migrate for further education. This had been a long term plan of hers which her husband and in-laws did not initially support. Her in-laws did not see the point of her seeking further education abroad and felt that her obligation was to her husband and family. Nevertheless, she took the

opportunity to migrate when offered a place at a university and planned her migration in secret, discussing it only with her husband who had begun to support her efforts. However, unfortunate circumstances took place and her husband died weeks after she accepted a place at the university. After his death, Afola was the target of a negative backlash from her in-laws and she was accused of killing her husband even though she was not with him at the time he fell ill. She later discovered that he had had a life-threatening disease which he had kept secret from her as he had been given five years to live. There have been several awareness campaigns and research outlining the plight of widows in Nigeria and other SSA countries. Nollywood has produced several movies depicting disturbing scenes where widows are ill- treated by their in-laws and the extensive research on the social, economic and psychological trauma inflicted on them (Soussou, 2002; Young, 2006). In the case of Afola, her in-laws took over some of the material assets owned by her husband soon after his death, but luckily

for her, her husband had already drawn up a will which bequeathed all his assets and responsibility for his children to Afola. She had to go to the extent of proving that the will was genuine by providing her in-laws with a notarized copy of the will as she did not trust them enough to show them the original.

Prior to her husband’s death, her in-laws were constantly involving themselves in Afola’s marriage affairs which she admitted was sometimes a challenge. Her husband also had a fixed set of beliefs which included looking at woman as subordinate to him. She explained that her husband would tell her,

“as a woman, whatever your husband likes you should let him go ahead and do it, after all it is his life. Even if he carries some shit to eat, if I am a respectable woman, I should carry it and eat”.

However, Afola explained that she was in a fortunate position as she was educated and employed and when she rebelled against her husband’s demands, he would attempt to withhold money from her, but she did not worry about that as she had her own earnings. Nevertheless, she explained that alongside wanting to migrate for further education reasons, she also hoped to escape her in-laws stating that,

“I felt like maybe if one moved away to an enlightened environment, maybe my husband could have changed his perspective about the way he thinks about a man being on top and delegating a woman. Because he was educated but that was the thing in the environment because that was what he was led to believe up to the point of death”.

These women describe circumstances where they had a certain degree of

women. Odera and Afola were stigmatised by the belief systems of their societies that held negative perceptions of women. Ethel was looking to provide for her children, but at the same time trying to re-establish a new social status in a different community as her decision to migrate was a result of her divorce. Afola, on the other hand, was at a stage in her life where she had identified negative values she hoped to eradicate such as the hold that sociocultural perceptions about women had on her husband. She was looking for a place of comfort for her family and for positive morals as she explored further education opportunities that would lead to her personal growth and benefit the family. Comfort and morality are values outlined in De Jong and Fawcett’s value expectancy theory (1981). Morality refers to values of a society that determine good and bad ways of living. In the case of Afola, she was hoping to find an

environment which did not disadvantage women and which maintained balanced relations between women and men. De Jong and Fawcett (1981) described comfort as better living conditions which can be associated with the lifestyle that Afola and her family were leading in her community. In my opinion, Afola was also looking for a sense of comfort in her career as she had always been in a position to provide for herself and family but migrating would help to boost her career as well as contribute to the household economy and wellbeing. However, when she became a widow, she wanted to be safe from her in-laws and their sociocultural hold on her family life, especially her children. This can be classified under autonomy De Jong and Fawcett (1981) described as “personal freedom, the ability to live one’s own life” (1981: 51), which is what Afola wanted to achieve for her family by escaping the social and cultural perceptions and practices in her society.

In the case of Odera when she became a single mother, it encouraged her to look for specific information related to the needs of her child (see chapter five). She revealed that before she became a mother, she had no particular goal in mind but she admitted that she just

wanted to leave Nigeria. With the birth of her son, her search for information became more specific and urgent as she needed to confirm whether it would be best for her to migrate with him or not. However, this situation describes a link between her motive for considering migration and her use of networks for information related to her circumstances.

As indicated earlier, Jennifer was the only Kenyan woman in this study who indicated that her migration was a result of the social and cultural perceptions of women in her society. She explained that when she migrated, she hoped that she would be able to improve relations between her parents and siblings because of the shame she had brought to the family when she was raped at the age of 16. Though innocent, her family rejected her and she also experienced hostility from the rapist’s family because they disliked members of her

community due to differences in cultural practices despite being from the same ethnic group (Kikuyu). Even though she indicated that her primary reason for migrating was to provide for her children, she also explained that she wanted to be recognised by her family (i.e. her parents and siblings). The sociocultural expectations of women in Kikuyu society were very rigid and her family, whom she identified as very poor, combined religion and culture in the socialisation process of the children and everyday lifestyle, as mentioned earlier. By mixing Christianity with ethnic culture, Jennifer’s parents had a fixed perception and expectation of female children and were willing to reject her because she had strayed from that expectation. Rape in Kenya at the time and more recently has been under-reported because of the negative perceptions of rape victims among members of society and because the law does not look upom rape as a serious crime (Francis and Amyunzu-Nyamongo, 2008: 224).

According to Kameri-Mbote (2000), cultural ideologies promoting women’s

includes domestic abuse, female circumcision and rape. She explains that “masculine construction requires manhood to be equated to the ability to exert power over others

especially through the use of force. Women are construed to be passive and submissive and to accept violence as part of the woman’s estate” (2000: 2). She adds that custom, religion and tradition were used to ensure that male authority is exerted. Socioculturally, Jennifer’s

experience demonstrates that rape was not considered a serious crime against women and was not deemed as such by members of society at that time. Instead, negative cultural stereotypes were attached to rape victims casting blame on them and not the rapist. Therefore, Jennifer used migration as a way of fixing her relationships by improving her economic circumstances and sending home money to her parents. At the time of the interview, she indicated that her parents were now talking to her because she was sending money to them for maintenance for her children and themselves. Although subtle, the sociocultural expectations of women can emerge as a primary or secondary reason for migrating as revealed by the experiences outlined above. However, interestingly, the sociocultural expectations of women can also feature as a part of the migration decision-making process.

3.5 Sociocultural Expectations of Women as part of the Migration Decision-Making