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Gender, Technology and Development
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Migration Patterns and Influence of Support Networks : A Case Study of West Africans in the Netherlands
Magali Chelpi-den Hamer Gender Technology and Development 2008 12: 347 DOI: 10.1177/097185240901200304 The online version of this article can be found at: http://gtd.sagepub.com/content/12/3/347
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Migration Patterns and Inuence of Support Networks: A Case Study of West Africans in the Netherlands
MAGALI CHELPI-DEN HAMER
This article explores the inuence of support networks in the migration process of West African migrants to the Netherlands. Taking a case-oriented biographic approach, the article analyzes the migration stories of several West African migrants with a focus on the networks that facilitated their journey and their initial stages of integration. It highlights the role of support networks in different moments of the migratory processpre-departure, arrival and settlementand discusses the scope of support and the obligations that emerge from these social interactions. The article shows that respondents received different types of support, from different types of groups, at different stage of their migration, which shaped the distinctive features of their individual trajectories. An interesting aspect is the support that settled West African migrants give to West African newcomers, which suggests the existence of a regional collective identity. Limited resources, however, pose serious constraints on this type of support.
Introduction
Studies on sub-Saharan African migration to Europe were rather scarce before the 1990s. Until then, such studies usually focused on a few migrant groups in a few receiving countries (the United Kingdom, France or Germany), on migrants characteristics and on estimations of migration size and ows (Banton 1955; Gish 1968; Jerrome 1978). After 1990, it has been increasingly acknowledged that there is a multiplicity of
Magali Chelpi-den Hamer, Amsterdam Institute for Metropolitan and International Development Studies, Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences, University of Amsterdam, Nieuwe Prinsengracht 130, 1018VZ Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Email: M.L.B.Chelpi@uva.nl
Gender, Technology and Development 12 (3), 2008: 347364 SAGE Publications Los Angeles/London/New Delhi/Singapore DOI: 10.1177/097185240901200304
348 Magali Chelpi-den Hamer
African trajectories that depends on a wide range of factors. Context-based studies ourish, targeting specic migrant groups in specic contexts, and new receiving countries are being studied (Italy, Spain, Greece, Portugal, Sweden, Finland and the Netherlands). Research continues to explore old themes (for example, migrants characteristics, estimations of migration size and ows), but new topics emerge from the contemporary context: transnational behaviors, the production of hybrid identities, socio-economic mobility, second-generation attitudes, undocumented migrants strategies and refugee studies (Al-Ali et al. 2001; AlitolppaNiitamo 2004; Andall 2002; Courade 1997; Engbersen and van der Leun 2001; Ifekwunigwe 2003; Koser 2003; Kuami Kuagbenou 1997; Marques et al. 2001; Mendoza 2000; Riccio 2003; Robin 1996; Simon 2003; Styan 2003). In the Netherlands, sub-Saharan African migration into the country has never been a main focus of research among scholars, probably because of its relative small size compared to other migrant groups. In 2004, subSaharan African migrants represented 150,000 people in numbers or ve percent of the migrants legally registered in the Netherlands (CBS 2004). There have been a few studies on Ghanaians, Nigerians, Cape Verdeans, Somalians and Ethiopians (Engbersen 2001; Kessel and Tellegen 2000; Mazzucato 2006; Nimako 2000), but compared to the bulk of literature on Turks, Surinamese, Moroccans and Dutch Antilleansthe ethnic groups that together account for one million residents and that receive the most attentionthere are not many. Sub-Saharan African migrants are marginal in number and in policy considerations. There are however several rationales for studying sub-Saharan African migrants in the Netherlands: (1) They arrived fairly recently (1980s1990s) in a context of strict migration policies (WRR 2001); they therefore exhibit integration patterns different from those of migrants who came four decades ago, at a time when the legislation was much more exible than today. (2) They tend to leave the Netherlands after a certain period of time. In 2004, the number of sub-Saharan Africans leaving the Netherlands surpassed the number of Africans coming in. (3) Their migration pattern is different from conventional expectations based on the explanatory effect of historical ties and social linkages in the migration process. The settlement of Burkinabes, Malians, Guineans, Senegalese, Nigerians in and around Dutch cities reects the need to search for new explanations for these migration patterns.
Gender, Technology and Development 12(3), 2008: 347364
Migration Patterns and Influence of Support Networks
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This article explores the structuring factors behind West-African patterns of migration into the Netherlands by looking at the inuence of the support networks that facilitated migrants journeys and their initial stages of integration. Using a case-oriented biographical approach, I extract aspects of migrants decision-making, individual migration trajectories and patterns of interactions among support networks, specically within West African migrant communities. What triggered their departure from their country of origin, and what type of support networks could respondents rely on? What circumstances did they face once in the Netherlands, and what type of networks were they able to activate? What was the scope of support, and to what extent have obligations emerged from such social interactions? The aim is to offer insights into some structuring aspects of migration, such as the reasons to migrate, the relevance of support networks in pre-migration and during the initial stages of integration, the scope of support, the extent of reciprocity and mutual obligations.
Transnational Migrants Trajectories and Support Networks

The transnational approach to migration emphasizes the role of social networks in shaping different forms of migrants incorporation in receiving countries (Massey 2001; Mazzucato et al. 2004; Portes and Guarnizo 1991). This perspective takes into account the existence of external inuences on migrants strategies, but only to a certain extent. Migrants might not control everything from A to Z; they might be inuenced by several people in their migration process; but in the end, they are the nal decision makers (in a non-exploitative scheme) and they are active agents of their migration process. They are able to activate certain resources and not others at certain points in time, depending on the opportunities they face, their individual characteristics and the quality of their social network. Several studies have documented the dual role of social networks in the process of migrants integration (Bourdieu 1986; Guarnizo et al. 2003; Marques et al. 2001; Portes et al. 2002). The positive role of social networks is rather intuitive: it implies membership in a group, acceptance by the group and leads to the capacity of taking advantage of group benets. Social networks can facilitate migrants lives by helping them on their journey or by facilitating their integration. Through the use of
such networks, migrants gain access to resources (gifts, loans, information about work or housing opportunities) and they also gain access to other contacts, which enables them to extend the volume and quality of their personal network. Negative impacts include being part of a too limited network, being conned to socio-economic niches with few hopes of social promotion, being partially or fully excluded from network benets, being subject to excessive demands or being abused by peers. Social networks have more than one dimension. In theory, each person has a certain number of family and close friends, who are regularly in touch with one another and who form a dense network consisting of strong ties (Woolcock and Narayan 1999). Each person is also in touch with a certain number of people (acquaintances, colleagues, relatives acquaintances), who usually do not know each other and who are connected to one another by a set of loose ties (weak ties). Strong tie networks are usually easier to access than weak ties networks, but they are likely to offer limited services, since each member of such a network is likely to have access to the same information and contacts. Weak tie networks have the potential to bridge the gap between separate personal networks. They can provide people with access to resources and information beyond those directly available to them, thereby signicantly increasing their opportunities. They fulll certain functions, but their nature and scope remain empirical questions yet to be answered. Woolcock and Narayan have stressed the importance of getting access to both types of social networks (ibid.). According to them, if a person has a dense network consisting of strong ties only, he/she may enable it to get by when needed (for example, by activating family, kinship and community ties), but he/she may lack the more diffuse social networks that are necessary to go ahead and to improve his/her status over time. They strongly argue that people with extensive and diverse networks are in better positions than the ones who lack those links. At the same time, they acknowledge that combinations of strong tie/weak tie networks vary across contexts and individuals, and that they are a dynamic process. What motivates a person to give support to others? Why does someone agree to make resources available? Do they expect something in return? Portes argues that there are four potential sources of support (Portes 1998): (1) When people agree to act in a certain way because they have
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internalized certain social norms and values, support is the result of a norm introjection; (2) When expressions of support emerge from the feeling of sharing a common fate, support is the result of a bounded solidarity. People who share, or shared, a common situation identify with one another and support each others initiatives; (3) When the motivation for making resources available to migrants is the expectation of payback, support is driven by instrumental motives; and (4) When support groups give access to resources in the expectation that they will be fully repaid in future, exchanges are based on the norm of reciprocity. In this article, support networks are dened as social networks that provide short-term or long-term relief to West African migrants in need, in the form of nancial support, service provision or moral assistance. They can be familial or extra-familial in nature, may or may not be based on ethnic grounds and have various degrees of institutionalization. Support groups can not only be institutions but also mere individuals, who provide assistance to people in need. Strong tie/weak tie networks are used to assess the types of social networks West African migrants activate for their journey and their initial stages of integration.
Data Collection
This study is an ethnography based on 29 in-depth interviews: 15 cases of former migrants who arrived in the Netherlands between 1978 and 20041 and 14 cases of support groups and associations.2 In line with Breckners approach (2007), I examine individual biographies to try to understand how processes of personal and societal change are connected to migration and how migrants deal with change. Such an approach helps to understand why members of the same immigrant community (West Africans in this case) experience migration differently, how migration experiences interact with specic life phases and how the meaning of migration can change over the course of time (Chelpi-den Hamer 2005). Migrants were mainly selected using snowball sampling and support groups through the African directory.3 Although I had not introduced a gender perspective in the research design, it is important to note that only a few respondents were women, and nearly all ended up in the Netherlands because they had married a legal resident from West African origin. Also during eldwork, men were more visible and more accessible through snowball sampling techniques.
I used semi-structured interviews, checklists and observations as interview methods. Most interviews happened at the respondents home. The interviews were not taped but notes were taken during the discussion, typed afterwards, then shared with the respondent and reviewed if necessary. Interviews with migrants focused on their socio-economic characteristics: the motivation to leave their country of origin and the choice of destination, the type and origin of support provided at different stages of their migratory process, the forms of reciprocity, the problems encountered and their relations with family, kin and support groups in both sending and receiving countries. Interviews with support groups mainly focused on the circumstances of their meeting with the migrants, the types and duration of support provided, the reasons for providing support and the interactions with other support groups. Due to the sensitivity of the topic, it was quite important to create an informal setting conducive to exchanges, to protect respondents condentiality by the use of pseudonyms and to give them the opportunity to withdraw (Scheyvens et al. 2003). In order to avoid harm and to avoid making respondents uneasy, I interviewed migrants already settled and out of asylum procedures.
Findings
Most respondents were young men in their late twenties when they arrived in the Netherlands. Most had an occupation and had attended post-secondary school in their country of origin. In the Netherlands, the majority experienced periods of illegal residency (expired visa or rejected asylum claims) and mentioned working without a residence permit. Some succeeded in securing documentation relatively quick but some were without documents for quite a long period. When legal status was secured, it was mainly by marrying a legal resident or by working in the formal sector at the time when work permit was disconnected from residence permit. In what follows, I rst describe the types of support and the types of networks that had an inuence on respondents migration trajectories. What triggered their departure from their country of origin, and what type of support networks could they rely on? I then focus on the support respondents received in their initial stages of integration: rst, from
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different types of institutional support groups (West African and non-West African); second, from West African individuals. What circumstances did respondents face once in the Netherlands, and what type of networks were they able to activate? What was the scope of support, and to what extent have obligations emerged from such social interactions? I present below a few migration stories to reect on these points. Reasons to Leave Trigger Choice of Destination Country The variety of individual stories that came out of the interviews shows the multiplicity of migration patterns. They also show that respondents were able to activate certain resources at certain points in time and that these resources were not homogeneous across contexts and individuals. Migration was usually triggered by a special event: an encounter with a key person, the need go abroad for business reasons, being put in jail or witnessing violence, fear and panic. For Amani, the trigger was an encounter with a friend. When he met him, he was in jail in Nigeria for having published a controversial article. My friend was a professional boxer who lived in the US, but who regularly came back to Nigeria. He told me that I did not deserve the kind of treatment I was getting. He told me that even if I did not like the idea of leaving my country, it was the best option for me. He arranged everything. Because he had to box in Germany, he could get me a three-month visa and a plane ticket to Frankfort. Once in Germany, I led an asylum claim. When I learnt that it was rejected, I took a train to the Netherlands. I did not know anyone there. For Aissatou, the trigger was fear. After witnessing her mothers death in her village (killed in a crossre) and the unexplained disappearance of her father and husband (both known locally as political activists), she ed to Conakry and found shelter in a convent. One of the nuns helped her and her child to ee the country by having them board a boat with the help of a crew member. There were two main reasons, which are not mutually exclusive, why respondents left their country: (1) They wanted to seize an opportunity giving them better life prospects. (2) They did not feel safe enough to
stay where they were. In this study, some respondents had time to secure money, documentation and travel plans, while others left in a hurry, and could hardly secure anything. The choice of destination country depended on which opportunity respondents followed (work, studies, relationships), where this opportunity led them and which information they had of the context in the country of destination. In the study, half of the respondents ended up in the Netherlands by accident. They could have ended up anywhere if other circumstances had applied. Some stayed rst in other European countries (France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Spain), then followed a lead that led them to the Netherlands; others ended up in the Netherlands after following advice; some were bitterly misinformed. The other half came to the Netherlands for a specic reason (business, marriage); they could not have ended up in another place. In the case of Ibrahim, for example, he ended up in the Netherlands because the Utrecht second-hand car market was well known in his country of origin, where he used to work in his uncles car business. He was therefore used to travel to the Netherlands for short periods to buy second-hand vehicles and to export them back. It is during his fourth trip that he got robbed. I had 15,750 US$ with me, mostly my own money and my uncles, but also from investors, 4,000 US$, which I had to pay back. I could not go back with debts, so I decided not to return after the expiration of my visa. I started working and saving to pay back the investors. Different Types of Support Networks Respondents received different types of support from different types of groups at different stages of their migration. They were able to activate certain resources at certain points in time but not others, and whom they relied on varied across contexts and individuals. They faced different situations and opportunities at both sending and destination country: they had different life stories, different individual characteristics, different personal networks and hence different obligations related to them (Charles 1992; Guarnizo et al. 1999; Smith 1998). In this study, strong tie and familial networks seem to have played the most important role in making the journey happen, while weak tie and extra-familial networks seem to have played the most important role in making respondents stay last in the Netherlands and in helping them
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to cope once they were in difculty (to the exception of cases of family forming where familial support was dominant). In their rst years in the Netherlands, many respondents lacked the extensive networks that crossed origin and ethnicity. They were usually not comfortable in addressing the Dutch institutions directly and relied on various intermediaries to make the liaison. They rarely went to the doctor alone for instance. They rst sought advice within their community and then went to the doctor with someone they knew. Intermediaries offered direct assistance or helped respondents to liaise with formal institutions. Fatou used the services of an association to divorce an abusive husband. She had left Ghana to marry him but while she was quite an independent woman there, her husband did not want her to work in the Netherlands. He was constantly belittling her and even beat her up from time to time. I left my husband several times. I used to live on the streets with my children, or I stayed at friends places for short periods. But I always felt obliged to go back to him. I did not have much here and my husband was much more introduced than me in the Dutch society. He could play with the rules much better. Fatou was eventually helped by an association that provided her with shelter and legal advice. She divorced her husband and received custody of her children after a bitter ght. In this study, legal and medical advice seemed to be mostly provided by West African and non-West African institutions; daycare and food by religious institutions; and mid-term accommodation, moral and social support, by compatriots and by other Sub-Saharan Africans. I found little evidence of nancial assistance. Financial support from strong tie and familial networks was usually limited to the purchasing of the plane ticket and to administrative costs for the visa. Weak tie networks activated in the Netherlandsassociations, churches, individualshad limited resources and they rarely used them on an individual basis. Respondents mentioned several times that West African associations were less enthusiastic today than a few decades ago, partly because most of them faced nancial problems, partly because members were quite disconnected from the reality of the newcomers and partly because of nancial strains. Moral support often lasted. Most respondents have kept regular contacts with their family in their country of origin, and quite a few are visited on a regular basis by parents, siblings and children.
Institutionalized Support: Scope, Chain Assistance and Emerging Obligations Surveyed institutions in the Netherlands usually made a strong point in minimizing their role in migrants decision-making. They limited themselves to information and contact providers; they did not choose for the migrant. They considered migrants active agents of their own migration process and expected them to choose the one option that ts them best. As a legal worker pointed out: What I do is explain to rejected asylum seekers the possibilities of returning to their country of origin, unless there is a risk for them to go back. I also explain to them the possibility to go somewhere else in Europe and to le another asylum claim. There are still technical breaches in the Dublin Convention,4 and in practice, someone can still open a second asylum procedure in a second European country without being persecuted. I also tell them that even if they decide to stay irregularly, they need a minimum amount of money. Support is usually limited in time and in response to a specic need (such as food, short-term accommodation, daycare, or legal advice). Migrants usually sever their connections with support groups once their problem is solved. Churches and associations may provide accommodation for a few nights, but no more: rst, they cannot afford more; second, they do not want to create a dependency. As a Dutch priest explained: We may help migrants for one or two nights by accommodating them in hotels or at other aid institutions. We do not have our own shelters, so we rent rooms for a few nights or we send migrants to free houses. We do not provide long-term accommodation. In most cases, there is no expectation of payback. The gap is just too huge between newcomers in need and support groups to make any kind of payback possible. Most non-West African supportive networks base their support on norm introjection, altruism and humanitarian principles. Bounded solidarity seems to be quite limited at the institutional level. Many West African NGOs expect migrants to pay a monthly fee to be able to get benets. When they provide a service, they expect everyone to pay the fee. There are indeed some exceptions, but West African institutions generally protect themselves from excessive demands.
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Support networks interact with each other and there are many examples of chain assistance, that is, support groups referring their clients to other support groups and getting their clients from others. Non-State institutions interact on a regular basis with State and non-State institutions: for medical assistance, with hospitals, municipal health services, doctors, medical associations; for social services, with public welfare, associations, churches, community leaders; for legal assistance, with the police, immigration services, legal council, associations; for accommodation, with associations, churches and individuals. Several respondents pointed out that rejected asylum seekers were directly referred to non-State institutions by immigration ofcials. Dutch ofcials give our address to rejected asylum seekers. Migrants come to Amsterdam with a piece of paper, show it to a bus driver, and end up here. Acknowledging the existence of referrals and interactions between support groups says little about the quality of chain assistance. I heard several times that people were misinformed and wrongly assumed that an institution had the capacity to offer a service (this was especially true when migrants were given tips about shelter possibilities). The capacity for help is also limited. There are indeed churches and NGOs that attempt to provide the basics to newcomers in need, but there are only a few, with limited resources, and they cannot absorb everything. In sum: institutional support networks have an inuence on migrants lives once they are in the Netherlands but this inuence is limited in time and scope and should not be over-estimated. Support is for a limited period of time, in response to a specic need. Bounded solidarity is quite limited at the institutional level. Associations and churches help, according to their means, and support usually does not last. They generally limit themselves in delivering a specic service and in providing contacts. Social Interactions among West Africans: Scope of Support, Emerging Obligations As noted earlier, familial networks played quite an important role in making the journey happen. They usually did not expect any payback per se, unless they took a loan to pay for the journey, in which case respondents were expected to reimburse. Yet, a certain form of payback occurred. Rather than strict reimbursements, respondents rewarded those who
helped them, according to their means. This took the forms of nancial remittances, goods or services and beneted their benefactor directly or indirectly. An implicit set of obligations emerge when one is given the opportunity to migrate to Europe. Nearly all respondents who were helped by a family member in their journey to Europe paid in turn for a younger brother to get to Europe or the United States. In the case of Mossi, his older sister paid for his plane ticket. She used to work as a nurse at a hospital in Burkina Faso, and she was married to a wealthy man. She considered that it was a gift and she did not expect anything in return. When I was settled, I rewarded her. Like any normal African. Mossi migrated in France for his studies when he was in his mid-twenties. A few years later, he moved to the Netherlands. His sister was a key player in his migration by paying for his plane ticket and by offering him the opportunity to go to Europe. In turn, Mossi was a key player in making his brothers migration happen: I was the rst to migrate in my family. Now I have a brother who migrated too. I helped him, nancially and administratively. He is currently studying in France. Another example is the case of Youssou. His oldest brother paid for his plane ticket to help him go to Europe. When he was nally settled in the Netherlands, Youssou started sending money regularly to his family. A few years later, he facilitated the trip of his young brother to the United States. I do not expect any reimbursement for that. Interestingly, these examples show that respondents did not facilitate migration in the country where they were in. In fact, many respondents made a strong point in facilitating migration while avoiding burden. Ouattaras brother was living in Germany. He arranged everything for him to come to the Netherlands, the plane ticket and the visa. However, he did not want Ouattara to go to Germany: not to be too much of a burden for him. Solidarity stayed bounded, according to the means. This gives another insight into chain migration theory. By suggesting that international migration is self-sustaining through the use of social networks, it is assumed that once someone has physically migrated, the ties he has with his social network transform into a resource that can be potentially activated by the persons he knows. The costs and risks associated with migration lower for them, as they expect the rst migrant to take care of them in the new country (Massey et al. 1994). The three examples presented above illustrate the self-sustainment of international migration,
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but show that it is not necessarily conned to the same country. More West African migrants in the Netherlands do not necessarily lead to more West African newcomers in the Netherlands, as the theory tends to suggest, but may lead to more West African newcomers in Germany, France or the United States. This highlights the difculty of managing migrants ows, making provisions and controlling borders at the state level. In the rst stages of integration, several respondents were helped by West African individuals, and mentioned in turn that it was because of their personal story that they were now keen on helping other West Africans. Respondents were newcomers themselves, ten years ago, and they know that starting a new life in Europe is far from easy for an African. Solidarity emerged from a sense of shared experience, and was generally bounded by the limits of the sub-Saharan African community at large, which crossed }country, language and religion. During eldwork, I heard stories of a Ghanaian helping a Ugandan, a Malian helping a Burkinabe and a Nigerian helping a Malian. As a Nigerian respondent explained: I hosted a Malian once, for a few days. Someone had given him my address. We could not really communicate properly as he spoke only French. He wanted to register for a masters degree program but he was short on nance. He was expecting money from Mali but it was slow to come. I eventually linked him up to a Camerounese association. I knew they spoke French so I introduced him to them. I usually try to provide networks so newcomers can move on. We already mentioned the importance of providing contacts. By helping according to their means and by facilitating interactions with other individuals and support groups, they assume migrants eventually move on and get out of their precarious situation. There are indeed personal costs involved when supporting migrants: I had people who needed an address for arranging their papers, so I agreed to register them at my home address. I also sometimes offered temporary accommodation to students, before they are able to get a room in campus. Of course it is a cost for me. The more the people, the more tax and the more electricity. I never collected anything from anyone, you know, this is part of the deal when you help people, but
I remember having to force people to remove their names from my address once they were settled and once they had their documents. They would not do it otherwise! Like institutionalized support, individual support is also limited in time and scope. One reason is that most good-willed individuals have families and cannot really bear much extra cost in addition to their own expenses. Support was limited to short-term accommodation, contact provider and general advice. In rare cases, it involved some petty cash. Interestingly, support was never been taken for granted and varied widely from individual to individual. One respondent had to call the brother of a friend in Germany to nd temporary accommodation in France. He clearly felt a need to be introduced in a social network to be able to make his claim. While an implicit set of obligations emerged among family members when it came to facilitating the journey, there was usually no obligation emerging from the interactions between individuals and West African newcomers. The socio-economic gap was just too huge between the two groups. In sum: West African migrants do indeed assist newcomers and help them to cope once in the Netherlands. Bounded solidarity emerges from a sense of shared experience, as the same migrants who provide support today were provided help ten years ago. Yet, assistance was limited in time and scope, and ndings can be compared with the ones in the previous section. Support was limited in time and to a specic service (short-term accommodation, contact provider and general advice), and varied widely from individual to individual.
Conclusion
This article has explored the inuence of support networks in the migration process of West African migrants to the Netherlands and how these contribute to the distinctive features of individual trajectories of migration. Respondents received different support at different stages of their migration. Strong tie and familial networks played the most important role in making the journey happen, while weak tie and extra-familial networks played the most important role in making respondents stay last in the Netherlands and in helping them to cope once they were in difculty.
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Institutional support networks had an inuence on respondents lives in their initial stages of integration in the Netherlands, but this inuence was limited in time and scope and should not be over-estimated. Support was for a limited period of time, in response to a specic need. Bounded solidarity was quite limited at the institutional level. Associations and churches helped, according to their means, and support usually did not last. They generally limited themselves to delivering a specic service and to providing contacts. At the individual level, solidarity emerged from a sense of shared experience, and was generally bounded by the limits of the sub-Saharan African community at large, which crossed country, language and religion. If they previously received help from family, there is the mute expectation that respondents return the favor by facilitating the migration of another family member (usually a younger brother). There was no such implicit set of obligations when respondents received help from support groups once in the Netherlands.
NOTES 1. One respondent arrived in the Netherlands in 1978 (from Ghana); one in 1985 (Burkina Faso); one in 1992 (Senegal); one in 1993 (Nigeria); one in 1994 (Senegal); one in 1995 (Senegal); one in 1996 (Nigeria); two in 1997 (Guinea Conakry and Nigeria); one in 2000 (Nigeria); two in 2001 (Guinea Conakry, Niger); one in 2003 (Nigeria) and two in 2004 (Senegal, Mali). 2. Seven associations had sub-Saharan clients, regardless of their nationalities (Churches, media, some NGOs). Five associations were ethnic in nature and only dealt with clients from the same nationality/ethnic background (one from Ghana, Guinea Conakry, Senegal and two from Nigeria). One support group operated outside the Netherlands and one is a private agent. 3. See http://www.africaserver.nl/africadirectory/ 4. The Dublin Convention provides that an asylum claim can only be led in one European country, and the results of the claim procedure are valid in all EU countries.
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Gender, Technology and Development

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348 Magali Chelpi-den Hamer

Migration Patterns and Influence of Support Networks

Transnational Migrants Trajectories and Support Networks

350 Magali Chelpi-den Hamer

Migration Patterns and Influence of Support Networks

352 Magali Chelpi-den Hamer

Migration Patterns and Influence of Support Networks

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Migration Patterns and Influence of Support Networks

356 Magali Chelpi-den Hamer

Migration Patterns and Influence of Support Networks

358 Magali Chelpi-den Hamer

Migration Patterns and Influence of Support Networks

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Migration Patterns and Influence of Support Networks

Gender, Technology and Development 12(3), 2008: 347364

362 Magali Chelpi-den Hamer

Gender, Technology and Development 12(3), 2008: 347364

Migration Patterns and Influence of Support Networks

Gender, Technology and Development 12(3), 2008: 347364

364 Magali Chelpi-den Hamer

Gender, Technology and Development 12(3), 2008: 347364

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