Dorte Thorsen presents Migrating out of Poverty research at the University of East Anglia
Dr Dorte Thorsen will present a research seminar at the University of East Anglia on Wednesday 8 November, entitled:
In her talk on Migrating out of Poverty? Linkages between Migration and Aspirations for Youth, Dorte will explore the question of whether migration makes migrants and their families better off.
This assessment often focuses on a relatively synchronic assessment of migrants’ living conditions or the remittances they send home. Drawing on research carried out in Bangladesh, Ghana, Indonesia and Rwanda by partners in the Migrating out of Poverty Research Consortium, she will explore the ways in which migration and remittances shape both migrants and non-migrants’ social positions in ways that will have long-term implications on gender and generational relations within families. She will look at how relationships between adults shift over time in order to tease out the ways in which subtle changes may slowly empower women to have more say in decisions concerning family matters. By examining the impact of remittances on the schooling of the next generation, she will explore how women make sense of and influence decisions about their children’s education and how young people seek to assert their own aspirations for the future as sons and daughters of migrants and as migrants. Dorte argues that the size and temporality of migrant earnings create barriers for upward social mobility for the next generation in highly gendered ways.
If you are interested in attending, please contact Paul Clist (paul.clist@uea.ac.uk).
The work she discusses is dervied from the Migrating out of Poverty research theme 'Generation and Gender', formerly known as the Intra-Household Dynamics and Youth Aspirations strand of compartitive reserach done in Indonesia, Ghana, and Bangladesh.
See UEA's research seminar pages here: https://www.uea.ac.uk/international-development/news-and-events/research-seminars
Dorte is the theme lead for gender dynamics and qualitative research at Migrating out of Poverty and the lead for our Gebder and Generation projects, working on uncovering the detail of changing relationships within family and household dynamics, in relation to migration and poverty. She also works significantly on the theme of children's work and migration.