Rethinking the future-seeking narrative of child migration: the case of Ethiopian adolescent domestic workers in the Middle East

ABSTRACT

Recent research on child migration has largely departed from the early trafficking narrative and has tended to highlight young people’s agency and the ways in which children’s migration can play a key role in their ‘future-seeking’. While we acknowledge that Ethiopian girls migrating to the Middle East in order to undertake domestic work primarily move voluntarily for economic reasons, our research – which used a multi-layered, qualitative research approach with girls and their families in the West Gojjam and North Wollo Zones of the Amhara National Regional State – found that the financial, physical, and psychological costs of such migration can far outweigh the benefits. Indeed, we conclude that the earlier trafficking narrative may, in this case, represent the most appropriate lens through which to view girls’ choices and experiences.     

On the Quadruple Qualities of Marxist Thought on Human Rights

Marxist human rights thought has realized an epochmaking change in human rights thought and has distinguished itself from capitalist human rights thought with its distinctive character.Marxist human rights thought has a humanistic character,starts from human nature and its essence,regards human rights as an important means to realize the all-round development of human beings and the fundamental proof of human liberation.Marxist human rights thought is characterized by being people-centered,and expresses the desire of the masses,with the proletariat as the main body,to realize a better life through the guarantee of human rights.Marxist human rights thought has a practical character,is based on practical materialism,advocates that human rights are derived from the social practice and promotes social practice toward civilization and progress.Marxist human rights thought has the character of rule of law,guides legal governance to the rule of good law,and lays the guarantee fot human rights on the foundation of substantive rule of law.     

Be like bees - the politics of mobilizing farmers for development in Tigray, Ethiopia

Based on long-term ethnographic research, this article analysesthe relations between local politics and farmers’ participationin rural development in Tigray (Ethiopia). It takes an actor-orientedapproach and focuses on local government officials and farmerrepresentatives, who mediate between the government agenciesthat undertake rural development programmes and the farmerswhom they address. To reach the target numbers of programmebeneficiaries, these local development brokers ‘mobilize’farmers to participate. They capitalize upon the historicallegitimacy of the 1975–91 revolution against the militaryDerg dictatorship in which the Tigray People's Liberation Front(TPLF), now heading the national government, and Tigray's ruralpopulation successfully joined forces. They revitalize farmers’collective memory of this alliance and reinvent the revolutionarygrassroots institutions through which it was realized. The effectsof mobilization on participation in development are most evidentamong farmers who are members of the TPLF. A TPLF-developmentnexus arises, structuring local political career opportunitiesalong the lines of development. The case study attempts to contributeto an empirical understanding of the entanglement of local politicsand local development brokerage in rural African societies.