Seasonal Migration in Niger - Scope and Patterns

Scope and Patterns

Historically, different ethnic and regional communities have traveled to different areas. These patterns are in part inherited from precolonial trade networks; cross border ethnic solidarities; colonial era industrial, mining, and harvest projects; and the attraction of areas with greater work potential combined with communities of immigrants from the source ethnic group. Areas in the north of the country, where stock raising is more common, see around 20% of the total population migrate for season work, whereas in the south – dominated by small farming communities – as much as a third of the population travels for seasonal work. While it is not unknown for women to take part, most who take part in the Nigerien Exode are men (unmarried and married) between 15 and 40 years old. Certain communities have traditions of women traveling for seasonal work both domestically and abroad, while it is purely a male preserve in others. Most men travel outside Niger, but cities like Maradi and Niamey also will see a large seasonal influx seeking labor. The major destinations remain Nigeria, which shares large Hausa ethnic communities with Niger, and the former French colonies of Côte d'Ivoire, Togo, Benin and Burkina Faso. In southern destinations, agricultural work is available long after the season has passed in Niger, while cities offer a variety of casual labor. The famines of the 1960s–1980s Sahel drought helped to cement these seasonal migration patterns. Men from a community will often travel together to the same towns on Exode each year, many to the same area that their fathers had traveled. For many in rural communities which pursue subsistence farming, the Exode provides most of their yearly cash income, and is thus a crucial element of the rural economy, although one not counted in the formal economy of Niger. Cash earned on Exode is partially spent abroad for necessities such as clothing, carried back at the end of the season, or sent via friends and clan or ethnic networks. A 2008 study found that not only do most migrant workers never make use of banks or money transfer systems, but that the Exode period is often a time when men will take out informal loans against their expected seasonal earnings.