The document discusses adolescent girls' migration in Bangladesh. It finds that while poverty is a main driver, the decision to migrate is complex, with girls claiming some ownership over the choice. Migration allows for personal growth and more control over life trajectories for some. Increased time spent in cities can open up spaces for self-assertion, though vulnerabilities remain for new migrants with little support. The document calls for interventions to address vulnerabilities, such as safe spaces, challenging gender norms, and improving migrants' access to services.

1. Footprints of Agency and Space for Self-assertion:
Adolescent Girls’ Migration in Bangladesh
Nicoletta del Franco
University of Parma

2. The context
 Emerging adolescence as a social stage
 Internal migration on the rise
 Migration as an alternative life trajectory for girls:
-work in the garment sector -domestic work- service
sector (beauty parlors) - study
Looking at
 What kind of agency young migrants express in different
phases of the migratory process
 the extent to which migration can contribute to shaping
and transforming their sense of self-hood and the kind of
social person they want to be/become, and
 their capacity to control and shape their own life.

3. Fieldwork
Fieldwork in two slums of Dhaka and three beauty parlors
with 2 main groups
 47 Bengali who had migrated as adolescents. Most
working or worked in garment industry. A few had
initially migrated as domestic workers
 13 Garo who had migrated when under 20. Most working
in ‘beauty parlors’
 Most migrants belonging to ‘poor’ or ‘very poor’
households
 17 (11 Bengali) migrants had been living in Dhaka for
more than 10 years
 the majority, 38 (34 Bengali) had migrated up to 5 years
before
Fieldwork in villages of origin with parents, relatives,
neighbours of the migrants and peers.

4. Survey data
Motives of migration
Total Bengali Garo
Poverty 43 38 5
Failed marriage 5 5 0
Avoid getting married 4 3 1
Continue education 4 0 4
Had to stop education 5 4 1
Wanting to help the family 17 14 3
Death of one or both parents 19 18 1
Desire for more freedom 2 1 1
Natural disaster/climate change 4 4 0
Learn a job 4 4
Difficult family situation 5 4 1

5. Girls’ narratives
At some point my father got very ill with brain cancer but my brother was convinced
that in Bangladesh there was no proper treatment available. He thought of selling
everything we had to get some money and take him abroad but my father didn’t want
to go. He told us: I might die anyway and then you’ll end up with nothing. There is no
need of going. He got treatment in Bangladesh but it didn’t work. My brother was the
only one supporting the family. He was keeping the family going and paying for my
study. We are 4, myself, my elder brother and two younger ones. There are also my
mother and my grandmother who is completely blind since 10 years. So, my brother
was paying for my study and buying medicines for my father. I realized when I enrolled
in class 8 that my brother could not any longer pay for everything. This was in 2012. I
got the standard scholarship when I was in class 8 but I could not get the one based on
merit because I could not afford private tuition.
my mother had mental problems and my father was dumb, we didn’t own land, my
brother was a daily labourer, our house was threatened by flooding, I had to leave.

6.  Poverty as a complex situation
‘obhab’ the main driver of girls’ migration ?
 Apparently most of the girls did not have a choice
 But need to consider:
girls’ young age at migration
legitimacy of girls’ migration only if motivated by helping the
family
not socially acceptable to express more individual desires.
 Complexity of the decision making process

7. Girls claim the ownership of the decision:
So I took the decision that I would not sit the final exam…I
argued with my brother because of that and I went to stay for
some time with an aunt…We could not pay my exams fees, my
father was ill, we had a lot of expenses for his medicines. At
some point my brother wanted to kill himself. My mother was
crying, so I thought...I cannot keep studying, we cannot pay.
What would happen if my brother died? I decided to come to
Dhaka to help my family, my mother was crying because she did
not want me to leave.
I had the sense to come here when I realized how difficult it was
for my parents.
We came after realizing how bad our family situation was and
how much hardship out parents were going through. Nobody told
us to come. We came after becoming aware of our parents’
difficulties.

8. A process of personal growth: increased
capacity to understand (bujha)
I am a village girl. I didn’t know anything. At that time, I
didn’t know anything. I was afraid, I got lost, I was
standing in the street and crying. Now, you have to
consider that I work independently, I stand on my own
feet, I earn money, I can help my parents. Now I
understand everything. I will not marry now, a bit later,
it’s not time now. I want to keep working.
Living in the city and working opens up for migrant girls a
different world and they struggle to find a compromise
between their obligations towards their parents and
siblings, the gender codes and what their ‘heart desires’
(mon chacche).

9. A process of personal growth: control of
one’s life trajectory
When I was 15-16 and they wanted me to marry, I said that
I didn’t want to marry, I wanted to work. I wanted to work
and with the money that the ‘auntie’ was giving me every
month I could somehow find out a way to improve my
family’s situation, but I needed more time.
For migrants who have been at destination for longer plans
for the future have become more defined and realistic
including the decision of further migration. Lota Monira
Salma
More decision making power in marriage choices: Sharmin,
Shamima.

10.  Footprints of agency:
negotiated and constrained interdependencies within and
between generations (Punch 2016) together with the wider
context of social relations within the (samaj) which define
reciprocal entitlements, obligations and responsibilities
girls’ attribution of responsibility to themselves and their
capacity to analyse their own and their family situation and
identify the pro and cons of staying and migrating
belief in one’s capacity to deal with life challenges and
with change and to influence and actively interact with the
social environment (Coleman, 2010).
 Increased spaces for self-assertion as capacity to decide
about important life choices for those who have been at
destination for longer.

11. Vulnerabilities and Implications for
interventions
 new to the city and the slums
 lack the protective support of familial networks.
 fleeing difficult circumstances in their home communities.
 very little access to any forms of services and formally
provided support
 little idea of where they might go for help
 do not normally fall within the categories of beneficiaries
targeted by state and non-state actors’ interventions
 Create safe spaces and wider social networks
 Promote discussion and challenge stereotypes about gender,
sexuality and sexual violence
 Improve access to services for migrant girls by:
• Strengthening existing interventions for adolescent girls
• Providing information on services and facilities
• providing counselling/mentoring