Migrations, Women and Kinship Networks in the Western Indian Ocean: A Comparative Perspective

In this volume dedicated to gender and family relations in transnational space many of the chapters refer to the present situation in several countries, in a framework of globalized context in which migrations have become a crucial aspect of the present political discourse. Following this premise, the focus of this chapter is on transnational care arrangements, gender, generations, and transnational conjugality. In my chapter, I focus on the way domestic arrangements are crucial elements that support the possibility of success of certain migrations From the point of view of my specialization in the African Western Indian Ocean, the past migrations within this area as well as present forced migration from this area, I would like to add some information concerning dynamics that were part of migrations in this region in the past. I believe that knowing what has happened in the past can provide interesting suggestions to analyze the present times. Migrations across the Indian Ocean area occurred fairly regularly much earlier than this century, and the success of migrants has relied on constructing new domestic arrangements in the country of destination.