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“It Is Better to Do Business in Africa than in Europe” – Socio-Economic Positionings among Business-Minded European Somalis Moving to Kenya

Type
Article (issue/policy brief, journal, blog, etc.)
Country
Kenya, Somalia
Region
East Africa and the Horn of Africa
Organization
Journal of Immigrant & Refugee Studies
Year
2020
Publication Series
Volume 18, 2020 - Issue 3: Leaving Europe: New Crises, Entrenched Inequalities and Alternative Routes of Social Mobility, pagg. 270-285
Authors
T. Scharrer

Using the example of European Somalis moving to Kenya, this article argues that although these middle class return migrants share many similarities, they also differ in significant ways. Focusing on economically independent migrants, this paper will show that their move to Kenya is both return and onward migration at the same time. The transnational socio-economic positioning of Somali returnees in Kenya, this article demonstrates, rests on the importance of legal capital for enabling transnational mobility, which in turn is relevant for the convertibility of capital in the various local settings in which migrants settle.