Getting By after Internal Migration

Scenes from the Life of a Day Laborer Family in Mazar-e Sharif, Afghanistan

Abstract

This article centers around the study of spatial mobility as response to the uneven distribution of chances and risks. In present-day Afghanistan, moving within the country can be one strategy by which to avoid aggression in certain places and/or to benefit from the better employment opportunities and general life prospects of other locales. The grand strategy of migrating, however, needs to be supplemented by the adoption of certain survival tactics in response to the unexpected, ever-changing mundane realities of day-to-day life in new and unfamiliar surroundings. Whether or not migration will be the key to better life depends on many different factors. Based on the example of one migrant family that came to the northern Afghan city of Mazar-e Sharif, this article looks into the concrete features of internal migration. The case study shows how people try to get by, which problems come along with their relocation, and in what ways these people represent their migration experience in their narrations.