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Migration of Female Nigerians across the Western Cameroon-Nigeria borders: Implications for Socio-economic Change in Anglophone Cameroon

Lotsmart Fonjong, University of Buea, Cameroon
lotsmart@yahoo.com

In post independence Africa, migration was generally male dominated, as social and economic realities were critical determinants of who migrate. The development legacies of colonial authorities like industrialization, urbanization and plantation agriculture in Cameroon triggered sexual selectivity in migration in favour of men whose labour was demanded in these industries and plantations. Today, the tides worldwide are changing as the proportion of female migrants is increasing with women constituting 70-80% of global migration (ILO, 2003). Women migrate in search of better opportunities. Migration increases their social mobility, economic independence and relative autonomy, especially if it is accompanied by increased participation in the labour market. Female migration across the western Cameroon-Nigeria boarder has increased tremendously by women who were traditionally home keepers, but are now in quest of a better livelihood. This new wave of female-dominated migration across the Cameroon-Nigeria borders, which is common in Africa, is partly due to the feminisation of poverty and other socio-economic dynamics. The women are part of the Nigerian stream of migrants to Cameroon who constitute by far the largest number of foreign residents in the country. These migrants generally tend to congregate and concentrate their settlements and activities in the towns and villages closer to Nigeria, where they control the economic life of these border areas, principally as farmers, fishermen, traders and money changers. The result is a Cameroonian economy, which is dominated by Nigerians, Nigeria made goods and smuggled foreign goods via Nigeria. The floods of foreign goods in Cameroon is virtually drowning local initiatives and ingenuity, and thus making the country more and more economically dependent on Nigeria. This paper argues that the new trend of increasing female Nigerian migrants across the western Cameroon-Nigeria border has impacted considerably on the sociao-cultural, economic and geographic landscape of Cameroon. It examines the economic and social interdependences created by this phenomenon, and its impacts on trade, culture, inter-marriages and gender relations. It postulates that the new responsibilities as breadwinners and head of households assumed by women resulting from migration have not only changed the distribution of power within the family, but have also affected the balance of trade between Cameroon and Nigeria. These dynamics and the treatment of Nigerian migrants in Cameroon, the paper argues, constitute both causes of, and reasons for the difficulty in resolving the Bakassi border crisis between the two countries.