Female genital mutilation and migration in Mali. Do migrants transfer social norms? (2015)
This study is a Descriptive research regarding All FGM/C with the following characteristics:
Author(s): Idrissa Diabate and Sandrine Mesplé-Somps
FGM/C Type(s): All
Health area of focus: None.
Objective: To investigate how powerful a mechanism migration is in the transmission of social norms,taking Mali and Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) as a case study
Study Population: girls aged to 14 years old and adults over 15 years old
Findings: The empirical evidence presented in this paper suggested that girls living in villages with return migrants were less likely to be circumcised than others. It appeared that this result was mainly driven by the percentage of returnees from Côte d’Ivoire. It suggested that what matters in the social norm process was not just the repressive action against those who practice FGM in the host country, but also the fact that migrants lived in an African country where FGM was not the customary habit. Study data also indicated that current migrants had much less of a potential impact on FGM than return migrants. The impact of returnees may first be explained by the change in their own attitude to FGM that could influence the behavior of stayers,and,second by their capacity to convince them to change their FGM practice.
Geographical coverage
Region(s):Western Africa
Country(ies):Mali