Adolescent migration and the 1990s nuptiality transition in Mali

Abstract

Attempts to explain the rise in women's age at marriage across Africa have focused mainly on determinants in the urban environment, notably women's education and the economic recession. In our study, we examined the migration of adolescent girls as a factor in the transition to a later age of marriage in rural Mali, using an analysis of data from a longitudinal survey conducted over 20 years. The findings show a close correlation between the rise in labour migration and the onset of this nuptiality transition. Continuing changes in marriage patterns include not only its postponement but also a breakdown in the marriage formalization process. Two main mechanisms are documented: a direct one, as migration enables young women to choose the timing of their marriage and is a source of empowerment; and an indirect one, as migration challenges family marriage conventions and contributes to elders disengaging from control over marriage and young people.

Keywords:

• marriage
• nuptiality
• adolescence
• transition to adulthood
• migration
• gender
• biographical survey
• demographic surveillance system
• Mali
• Africa

Notes

1. Véronique Hertrich is at the Institut National d’Études Démographiques (INED), 133 Boulevard Davout, 75980 Paris cedex 20, France. E-mail: [email protected]. Marie Lesclingand is at Université de Nice (URMIS/IRD/UMR205), Pôle Universitaire St Jean d'Angely, 24 Avenues des Diables Bleus, 06357 Nice cedex 4, France. E-mail: [email protected]

2. This paper was translated from the French by Catriona Dutreuilh and Krystyna Horko.