Fertility of Malian Tamasheq Repatriated Refugees The Impact of Forced Migration (2004) / Chapter Skim
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From page 1... ...
The disruption of fertility during the disorder of forced migration can itself be seen as part of the disintegration of society and identity; the impact of conflict and flight on reproduction may be an important indicator of the degree of crisis faced by the population. Postcrisis fertility and changes from the reproductive regime prior to the forced migration indicate not only how the population has responded to the multiplicity of changes and traumas, but also its ability to adapt and manipulate its new sociopolitical position.
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The data used for this Angolan study excluded refugee camp populations and thus may have minimized the impact of forced migration on fertility, focusing more on general consequences of conflict. The study by Lindstrom and Berhanu (1999)
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Most of these delta Tamasheq were from the Cherifen and Kel Antessar confederations of warrior marabouts. The Gourma Tamasheq3 living south of the Niger bend, studied in 1982, included more of the vassal class and lower status free Kel Tamasheq; both areas were socially heterogeneous, with representatives of all the different Tamasheq social classes: warriors, religious maraboutic groups, vassals, lower status groups, blacksmiths, and slaves and ex-slaves.
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. Thus in both areas the Kel Tamasheq have long been part of a multiethnic environment with considerable contacts and interdependencies between different groups.
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There are many different categories of Bella; some were liberated by their masters generations ago, some were liberated by the French, and others left their masters when successive laws abolished slavery. Gradual impoverishment of Malian Kel Tamasheq in recent decades has resulted in many Bella leaving the pastoral sector altogether.
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Heterogeneity in terms of production, environment, and social organization in the Kel Tamasheq population in Mali means that one cannot generalize about all Malian Kel Tamasheq demography; still, some of the specifics almost certainly apply elsewhere. The demographic regime was typified by relatively low fertility,6 largely a function of the nuptiality regime, and unusual patterns of mortality differentials.
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Although some urban Kel Tamasheq were highly educated, in the two populations studied in 1981-1982 everyone was nomadic, few had been to modern school,8 and there was little contact with modern health services. Most people lived in relatively small, isolated camps (20-40 people)
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Many people spent about 4 or 5 years in the refugee camps. Although the majority of camp residents had previously been nomadic pastoralists, there were also people who had sedentarized after the 1985 drought, along with Kel Tamasheq and Maure civil servants, teachers, trad 9Most people in the Mema left because there was nowhere there to hide.
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Rudimentary health care provisions developed into immunization programs and free health and maternity care. Whereas previously nomadic delta Kel Tamasheq drank water from marshes and the river, boreholes now provided clean tap water.
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Figure 1 outlines a framework for considering these stages of the forced migration process and speculates about the differing weight of fertility determinants at each stage. Three basic periods of forced migration can be identified, although each specific situation has its own complexities and modifications.
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11 aid context Order repatriation/ populations Political Economy development political other religion New Resettlement activities and economic . capital land hierarchies of of tility training fer Socio- economic loss loss education social services on Dependence health impacts camps: Outcomes and Limbo deaths torture/ reproductive refugee Psychological trauma multiple rape uncertainty despair natalism- of migration anti/ use ced Reproductive and for to of Established survival density natalism separation pro access child phases of camps resources· strategies· partners· Biosocial spousal rape population marriage refugee Disorder stress early and Conceptualization and 1 deaths Flight, malnutrition Biological nutrition disease physical/mental libido infant amenorrhoea FIGURE
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in the three phases of the forced migration crisis (represented by the thickness of the arrows)
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A third level of change is that of conscious demographic manipulation; its strategies emerge either as a response to the threats that originally led to exile or as a form of insurance against renewed persecution. These two frameworks for conceptualizing the impact of forced migration on fertility and reproductive health are used in this paper to examine the case of the Kel Tamasheq in western Mali.
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From page 14... ...
The populations there can trace kinship links with many groups in the Mema, and some who had lived in the Mema before the forced migration chose to be repatriated in the Daouna. We surveyed all the communities in a geographical subarea of the Daouna.
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0.88 0.96 Individual interviews All women ages 15-50: Ever-married women 1,289 interviews ages 12-55: 89 percent eligible 1,313 interviews women 79.1 percent eligible women Ever-married men: 739 interviews 54.7 percent eligible men Tuareg proportion of population 0.53 0.765 with their animals (this was not possible in the flat open landscapes further south) .12 They are all related to people in the Mema and the Daouna, and many in these northern communities also have close kinship links with the Tuareg social, political, and intellectual elite.
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Such summary data were also collected for women over age 55 because their birth and marriage histories were found to be too time-consuming and inaccurate. Thus some of the fertility data analyzed below are an amalgam of these two different sources of data, whereas detailed birth history and marriage data are from the subsection of men and women who were interviewed.
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Figure 3 documents the proportions of all reported birth events that were either stillbirths or miscarriages for the total population and for those who were in the refugee camps between 1991 and 1996; the numbers are very small. Stillbirths did peak in 1991, the year of flight, but then declined annually during the refugee camp period.
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SB: Refugee Camp Miscarr: Refugee Camp 0.08 SB: Total Pop Miscarr: Total Pop 0.07 0.06 Events 0.05 Birth 0.04 Reported of 0.03 Proportion 0.02 Flight and Exile 0.01 0.00 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 Year FIGURE 3 Stillbirths and miscarriages as proportion of total birth events: Smoothed using 3-year running mean.
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The most robust measure of fertility is reported parity by age, which for the total population is almost identical in 2001 to 1981 (Figure 4) up to age 40, after which there was poor reporting in 1981.
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Although useful for considering any overall trends, these 5-year periods are not particularly appropriate for examining the impact of forced migration. For that purpose, the following periods (which allow for a lag of 9 months for pregnancy)
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1994-1997: Limbo: Late period in refugee camps + repatriation; internal displacement and hiding for many nonrefugees. 1998-2000: New order: After repatriation.
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Some fled to Mauritania but never entered the refugee camps, others (including a few civil servants who became nomadic pastoralists again) retreated with their animals to extremely isolated areas in Mali, hidden from the army and militias.
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Entry into marriage, marital breakup, and possibly the initiation of innovative marital behavior are likely consequences of four of the forces identified in Figure 1 linking forced migration with fertility outcomes: biosocial, psychological, socioeconomic, and the political economy. In 1981 the largely monogamous Kel Tamasheq had low proportions of women currently married, a nonnegligible number of women who never married (around 5 percent)
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Married 90 80 70 60 50 Percentage 40 30 20 10 0 12-14 15-19 20-24 25-29 30-34 35-39 40-44 45-49 50-54 Age of Woman FIGURE 7 Percentage of women currently married and single by refugee status: Household data. Marriage During the Disorder and Limbo Periods Tamasheq marriage is based on exchanges of bride wealth and preferred marriage with close kin, especially any type of first cousin.
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15 shows that the flight and refugee camp period did not appear to have a major impact on marriage dynamics. First marriage rates declined slightly in the early refugee camp period, whereas remarriage rates increased, only to decline later in the exile period and on repatriation.
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14 12 10 Women 8 Eligible 6 Refugees Nonrefugees 4 Percentage Flight and Exile 2 0 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 Year FIGURE 9 Smoothed annual all marriage rates: Refugees and nonrefugees.
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From page 27... ...
, 1991 stands out as having fewer divorces and new widows than other years for the refugee population. Despite the small numbers, it is interesting to note that for both divorce and widowhood the greatest divergence between the refugees and nonrefugees occurs during the forced migration period, seen more clearly when comparing the refugee population with the total population studied (Figure 10)
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Nonrefugees include more Bella and blacksmiths and more people from the northern communities, where education levels are higher and there are closer kinship links with the political elite. Multivariate analysis was undertaken to determine whether there was an independent role of refugee camp residence on fertility and whether this was mediated through marriage.
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Refugee status Refugee spent more than 6 months in a refugee camp. Literacy Whether the woman herself was literate in either French or Arabic.
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p < 0.001. From these models it is clear that having been a refugee did influence Kel Tamasheq fertility but that the proximate determinants changed during the different stages of the forced migration process.
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suggest a sociopolitical impact of flight on fertility (through longer term divergent trends for refugees and nonrefugees) , the multivariate analysis indicates that this was probably largely a biological and biosocial response at times of movement and stress rather than a behavioral response to refugee camp residence.
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Most of the literate women in 1998-1999 were still very young, and it is at present unclear whether their education will affect their nuptiality and fertility. Although refugee camp residence appears to have had little impact on overall fertility during the limbo period, it is likely that the dramatically altered lifestyle conditions in the camps for the previously nomadic women influenced marital behavior and contraceptive knowledge.
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20 shows that those who subsequently became refugees and those who did not had almost identical distributions of age at first marriage before 1985, although age at first marriage did diverge before the forced migration. In the six years preceding the rebellion, those who did not become refugees had fewer older and very young marriages.
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For those in the refugee camps, the increase in young marriages can be seen as a consequence of two trends: first, the active social life that young people led in the refugee camps, with substantially increased peer groups and parties that went on for days, may have led parents to want to protect their daughters through marriage.21 Second, there may have been political motives: the grouping of substantial numbers of people with little 21 There are stories that there was a substantial increase in premarital pregnancies, although none was reported in the survey, possibly because they were seen as very shameful.
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. It was hypothesized that in the refugee camps increased contacts with a wider social circle would lead to more marriages among nonkin, which was not observed.
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In 1981 marriage was the proximate determinant of fertility, which made the Tamasheq fertility regime different from other rural Malians. If fertility were to be significantly affected by forced migration, then nuptiality changes were the most likely driving force.
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, whereas neither social class nor residence in a refugee camp had any association with fertility control. Women of all age groups had used modern contraception, but behavioral methods were more associated with younger 25 We abandoned asking the questions of postmenopausal women after about 8 communities: 60 (4.5 percent)
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* or French In refugee camp *
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, in which having lived in a refugee camp had no impact on the odds of knowing about any form of fertility control. Those who have been nomadic since repatriation were less likely to know about modern or traditional contraception (but not behavioral)
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All the interviewers felt strongly that many women were denying knowledge that they had, but it is not clear whether such denial was related to having lived in the refugee camps. Although the process of the rebellion, forced migration, and refugee camp living were not apparently related to knowledge or use of contraception, one of the consequences of the forced migration was that a few former
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From page 41... ...
Thus although residence in refugee camps may not have transformed knowledge, the sociopolitical consequences of the rebellion mean that a more heterogeneous female population now lives in the rural areas, mainly in the sedentarized sites, and they may well influence reproductive behavior in the near future. Other Proximate Determinants of Fertility Other proximate determinants of fertility were considered, but there seems to have been little change engendered by the forced migration.
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From page 42... ...
This study was originally undertaken to focus on these socioeconomic and political changes and their impact on demographic behavior. It was thought that for a minority ethnic group with a traditionally dispersed population, a period of five years in densely populated refugee camps was likely to engender pronatalism and deliberate changes in fertility behavior.
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From page 43... ...
In order to draw lessons from the experience of this population in terms of understanding the impact of forced migration on reproduction, one needs to focus on the original temporal framework of disorder, limbo, and new order. Tamasheq fertility was temporarily disrupted during disorder, with a rebound (as in a famine)
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From page 44... ...
Nomadism is, of course, very specific to this particular group and would be unlikely to apply to many other situations of forced migration. For these Kel Tamasheq people, repatriation has had as much impact on reproductive behavior as the original crisis, with several indices of demographic well-being deteriorating since repatriation -- such as stillbirth rates and the mortality differentials between children with related parents and those with unrelated parents.
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From page 45... ...
The social and demographic history of the population in an ecological and political environment are as much a part of the response to forced migration as the hardship, hunger, and spousal separation. That is why it is important to understand the story of the many individual populations in a national conflict, and why national pictures may frequently be distorted.
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From page 46... ...
Berhanu 1999 The impact of war, famine and economic decline on marital fertility in Ethiopia. Demography 36(2)
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From page 47... ...
Giuffrida 2003 Forced Migration, Sedentarization and Social Change: Malian Kel Tamasheq. Paper presented at International Association for the Study of Forced Migration Biennial Conference, Chiang Mai, Thailand, January.
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Having also worked on Palestinian demography and developed an interest in the role of both forced migration and minority status on demographic behaviour, the particular experiences of Malian Kel Tamasheq in the rebellion and repatriation were an obvious research topic for the author. She has now developed a general research interest in the demographic consequences of conflict and forced migration particularly with respect to fertility and nuptiality.
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The Roundtable on the Demography of Forced Migration was established by the Committee on Population of the National Academy of Sciences in 1999. The Roundtable's purpose is to serve as an interdisciplinary, nonpartisan focal point for taking stock of what is known about demographic patterns in refugee situations, applying this knowledge base to assist both policy makers and relief workers, and stimulating new directions for innovation and scientific inquiry in this growing field of study.
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