From 'ethnic group' to 'transnational community'? Senegalese migrants' ambivalent experiences and multiple trajectories

Abstract

The article discusses the ambivalent experiences of Senegalese migrants within the 'transnational' spaces uniting Italy and Senegal. It is argued that to name transnational what was previously called 'ethnic group' does not necessarily prevent a reified conceptualisation of migratory phenomena. With the aim of providing an ethnographic representation which is respectful of the complexity and the multiplicity of trajectories characterising a transnational community, I describe practices as well as narratives from both the context of origin and the context of migration. I show that there are various ways of being transmigrant and that transnational migration, rather than being a homogeneous system, encompasses a wide range of different and situationally varied practices. I also try to convey the ambivalences and tensions shaping representations and self-representations. Contradictory yet coexisting narratives inform Senegalese self-representation and their different attitudes towards Italians: some more open to negotiation, others more inward and critical.

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