'You Have to Know How to Speak Nicely': Female Migrant's Use of the Internet During Situations of Prolonged Immobility

Posted: 22 Mar 2013

Date Written: 2013

Abstract

This paper focuses on female migrants from sub-Saharan Africa who reluctantly live in Morocco for prolonged periods of time. It explores how they use the internet to navigate multiple constraints imposed by the externalisation of European migration management. The paper is based on seven months’ ethnographic fieldwork that examined notions of hope, regret and suffering among sub-Saharan migrants in Rabat early 2012. The findings emerged in participant observation in a knitting class throughout the fieldwork period, two focus groups with female migrants and 10 semi-structured interviews focusing on the use of internet. The analysis shows that although female migrants seek legal entry into Europe through internet romances with European men, as has been shown in a number of studies, female migrants in Rabat also use the internet to initiate flirtatious relationships with men in the Diaspora. These relationships, I argue, help female migrants circumvent constraints faced in the Moroccan context, ranging from structural marginalisation by the Moroccan state to marginalisation within migrant communities. Knowing how to speak nicely and thus prompt a flow of gifts transferred through Western Union pays the bills and gives female migrants more control over whether or not to engage in physical/romantic relationships in Morocco.

Suggested Citation

Thorsen, Dorte, 'You Have to Know How to Speak Nicely': Female Migrant's Use of the Internet During Situations of Prolonged Immobility (2013). ASA 2013 Annual Meeting Paper , Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2236787

Dorte Thorsen (Contact Author)

University of Sussex ( email )

Sussex House
Falmer
No Address Available

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