Immigrant Exclusion and Insecurity in Africa

Book excerpt: This book explores the diverse immigrant experiences in urban West Africa, where some groups integrate seamlessly while others face exclusion and violence. It shows, counterintuitively, that cultural similarities between immigrants and their hosts do not help immigrant integration and may, in fact, disrupt it. This book is one of the first to describe and explain in a systematic way immigrant integration in the developing world, where half of all international migrants go. It relies on intensive fieldwork tracking two immigrant groups in three host cities, and draws from in-depth interviews and survey data to paint a picture of the immigrant experience from both immigrant and host perspectives.