From shackles to links in the chain: theorising adolescent boys’ relocation in Burkina Faso

This paper focuses on adolescent boys’ independent migration to Ouagadougou and Abidjan and aims to unpack decision-making and strategies in child relocation. Through participant observation and interviews with around 120 young male migrants from the Bisa region in south-eastern Burkina Faso, the paper explores how their capacity to tap into networks of kin and peers shapes their migration and work trajectories. The paper argues that adolescents’ performance as social actors is central to their migration, in as much as they choose between travelling with age-mates or with senior kin, which in turn shapes the destination and the type of work that they will take up as early-career migrants. The adolescents also make choices regarding employers and where to live at the destination by tapping into particular types of social networks