The UBC Centre for Migration Studies Speaker Series 2021-2022 presents:
“Villages Gone Digital: Villages’ WhatsApp groups and Migrants’ New Forms of Intervention in Sending Communities” with Dr. Abdoulaye Kane
Thursday, March 3, 202212:45 PM — 2:15 PM Pacific Time (PT)Location: Liu Institute – Place of Many TreesFree & open to the public.
[Abstract]
This paper privileges a historical and anthropological approach in examining the evolving relationships between Haalpulaaren migrants in Africa, Europe and America and their home communities through the use of social media platforms such as WhatsApp. We are particularly interested in the emergence of new forms of development interventions bringing together migrants across the globe and the people they left behind in deploying coordinated collective actions for the benefits of local communities. Village WhatsApp groups have been initiating lately in the Senegal River Valley innovative community projects that are discussed, elaborated, and funded virtually. We will consider two cases in this paper that will illustrate the new dynamics of migrants’ intervention that are complementing the traditional role of hometown associations in this remittance dependent region of Senegal.
[Bio]
Abdoulaye Kane is an Associate Professor in Anthropology and the Center for African Studies at the University of Florida. His teaching and research interest is on the transnational practices of Haalpulaar migrants in Europe and the United States and their impacts on the sending communities in the Senegal River Valley. He is the author of several articles and book chapters on the experience Senegalese migrants in Europe and America and their connections to their sending communities in the Senegal River Valley. He is the co-editor of two books on African migration. 1- African Migration: Patterns and Perspective and 2- Medicine, Mobility and Power in Global Africa with Indiana University Press. He is the editor of the section On the Move: Urbanization, Migration, and Transnationalism in The Handbook of the Sahel, Oxford University Press (2021).
Event Registration:
Pre-RSVP for this event is now closed but you are still welcome to attend. The event is free and open to the public. We look forward to seeing you there!