This article briefly describes the Soninke labor migration, and interprets it as a means of diversifying risk in a context of missing insurance and credit markets. Historical and anthropological studies on this ethnic group are briefly surveyed, and suggest that it is not only the well-being of...

This paper reviews some of the microeconomic evidence concerning migration and remittances in Africa. After a brief survey of the literature, it draws some lessons from two surveys performed in the Senegal River valley in Mali and in Senegal. The paper makes two main points. First, migration...

Flore Gubert examines the investment-oriented initiatives of Malian migrants in their home to illustrate that out migration has a strong impact on poverty reduction in the Kayes area. She proposes that migration-cum-remittances alone do not create the right conditions for genuine development...