West African migration to Argentina

West Africans constitute a growing migrant group in Argentina. There is an increasing public, political, and academic interest in the group, yet studies are only starting to appear. During a one-day seminar at the University of Buenos Aires, May 15, Danish and Argentinian researchers and NGO practitioners came together to discuss and compare research on West African migration on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. Discussions revolved around the migration, adaption, and return experiences of West African migrants in Argentina, Morocco, and Ghana as well as the legal migration frameworks in Argentina and EU.

The seminar was organized by Ida Vammen, PhD candidate at DIIS, who is finalizing her fieldwork on West African street traders in Buenos Aires. It was part of the New Geographies of Hope and Despair research program which examines the social effects of migration management for West African migration. Program members Nauja Kleist, DIIS, and Dorte Thorsen, University of Sussex, presented papers on West Africans in Morocco and involuntary return to Ghana, respectively, based on recent field studies