Migration as a Collective Project in the Global South: A Case Study from the Ethiopia–South Africa Corridor

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Abstract This chapter critiques the individualist thrust in migration studies and the assumed “autonomous agency” of prospective migrants, especially in the context of the Global South. It recasts migration as a collective project through a case study of Hadiya migration to South Africa, the place of origin or most of Ethiopian migrants. The chapter makes the case for a processual understanding of migration rather than a synchronic approach with its nature changing on the “individualist-collectivist continuum” across time. It is argued that the success of Hadiya migration to South Africa is largely due to its collective nature at the various stages of migration processes—from decision-making, to the various forms of social support that enable cost sharing and ease the process of settlement at destination. At the same time however, the material wealth accumulated in South Africa, and the greed that underpins it, has contributed to the erosion of the collective imagination of social life and the increasing centrality of individualist perspectives, particularly viewed in businesses and investments. As such, the collective benefits accrued at early stages are now being lost and the negative consequences are becoming perceptible. The chapter concludes making a case for bringing in a temporal approach that examines changes in the individualist/collectivist conceptions of migratory agency at different phases of the migration experience.

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