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Visa problem: certification, kinship, and the production of ‘ineligibility’ in the G ambia
Author(s) -
Gaibazzi Paolo
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
journal of the royal anthropological institute
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.62
H-Index - 62
eISSN - 1467-9655
pISSN - 1359-0987
DOI - 10.1111/1467-9655.12078
Subject(s) - kinship , prosperity , certification , ethnic group , product (mathematics) , subsistence agriculture , state (computer science) , destinations , politics , political science , sociology , law , geography , computer science , geometry , mathematics , archaeology , algorithm , agriculture , tourism
The article describes the documentary vicissitudes of young G ambian men of S oninke ethnicity. Normally the most mobile subjects in a milieu where international migration is central to subsistence and prosperity, these young men often fail to secure entry visas to the W est and other desirable destinations owing to restrictive admission policies. Would‐be travellers cope with high rejection rates, but also struggle to secure financial and logistical support from relatives in order to meet the demanding requirements of visa applications. Since kinship mediates access to travel documents, the article suggests that visa ineligibility is a product of both state‐based and societal practices of certification. It shows how the visa regime plays into the kinship reciprocities and affects that produce, discipline, and select prospective migrants, thereby transferring and concealing the arbitrariness and uncertainty of legal‐political structures of mobility.