Shifting Families

Shifting Families

This project examines the intersection of migration and family using multi-sited case studies in Johannesburg (South Africa), Fes (Morocco), and Berlin (Germany). Drawing on an interdisciplinary approach from anthropology, education, gender, migration and linguistic studies, the main aim of this project is to interrogate the notions and dynamics of African migrant families in the context of contemporary and multi-directional migration flows in three urban spaces.

Shifting Families:  Interrogating notions of “family’ in a context of contemporary African migration and diverse urban spaces, using multi-sited case studies in South Africa, Morocco, and Germany

This project – funded by a Volkswagen Postdoctoral Fellowship – explores how African families renegotiate family systems and cope with structural, political and domestic violence throughout the migratory process. The project is based on an involved, mixed methodology consisting of analysis of census data, policy analysis and original empirical fieldwork in three countries.

Research partners
– Prof. Fatima Sadiqui: Professor of Linguistics and Gender Studies, and Woodrow Wilson Center Fellow
– Prof.  Moha  Ennaji: President, and Co-founder of the International Institute for Languages and Cultures (INLAC)
– Dr. Lydia Potts: Lecturer at Carl von Ossietzky University Oldenburg, Coordinator of the Working Group Migration – Gender – Politics, and also Coordinator of the European Master in Migration and Intercultural Relations (EMMIR) MA course
– Dr. Ulrile Lingen- Ali: Postdoctoral fellow based in the Department of Educational Sciences, and the Center for Migration, Education and Cultural Studies (CMC), at Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg
– Magdalena Zimmermann: EMMIR MA student at Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg

• About the Author
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About Zaheera Jinnah

Zaheera Jinnah has a PhD in anthropology and a background in development studies and social work. Her research interests are in labour migration, gender and diaspora studies. She is a research associate at the ACMS where she teaches, supervises graduate students, and engages in policy and academic research. Her recent publication is the co-edited book (Palgrave) ‘Gender and Mobility in Africa: Borders, Bodies and Boundaries'.

• Negotiated Precarity in the Global South: A Case Study of Migration and Domestic Work in South Africa - January 15, 2021
• OP-ED: South Africa is burning: femicide, xenophobia and protests - September 5, 2019
• Miners’ health dominates Swazi migration dialogue - August 29, 2017
• Routes, locations, and social imaginary: a comparative study of the on-going production of geographies in Somali forced migration - August 29, 2017
• Work and wellbeing on the urban periphery - May 18, 2017
• The bodies behind the ban - May 10, 2017
• A Vibrant Civil Society, a Free Press, and an Independent Judiciary – last remaining bastions of democratic South Africa - March 24, 2017
• “Billions against migration” learn from South Africa - March 21, 2017
• Xenophobic Violence Reveals a Crisis in Policing and Leadership - March 10, 2017
• Trump’s Muslim ban unfair and ineffective - February 1, 2017