Straddling Two Worlds: Highly Skilled Migrants from Senegambia and Switzerland

Author(s) : Haddy Sarr

Source : http://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/straddling-two-worlds-highly-skilled-migrants-senegambia-and-switzerland

Abstract:

While discussions of African migration often focus on those escaping war, poverty, or political instability in Africa to find a better life in Europe, migration channels that include highly skilled migrants flow in both directions. Even as there has been significant research into the social, political, and economic dimensions of highly skilled migration, understanding of the individual life experiences and livelihoods of these immigrants remains limited. This holds true for highly skilled migrants from Senegambia (the West African region comprised of Senegal and The Gambia) in Switzerland—a newly popular destination for highly educated immigrants in fields such as accounting, engineering, and the sciences—as well as Swiss migrants in Senegambia. Personal accounts of these immigrants demonstrate numerous similarities between the experiences and activities of the two groups, while also revealing a few key differences.