Seventeenth Global Studies Conference

Abstract

Tontines, also known as ROSCAs constitute an informal system of credit and savings associations consisting of several people, usually women, who pool their money together and distribute the savings according to the stipulated periodicity, with each of the participants taking her turn to receive the money collected from the group. Tontines constitute a very popular type of informal microfinance strategy among small-scale networks of women in different West African countries, where they play an essential role in the economic, social and cultural fields. In the migratory context, tontines also constitute a fundamental economic, social, and cultural strategy among West African women (and men). This paper will illustrate the interrelationships between, the socio-economic characteristics of the migratory context (e.g. the labor market), and the configuration of transnational tontines: (i) types of tontines; (ii) motivations for participating (or not) in a tontine; (iii) membership and functioning of tontines; (iv) economic dimension of tontines (to facilitate savings and provide credits); and (v) sociocultural dimension of tontines (diversification and strengthening of networks based on trust, solidarity, and cooperation). This research is based on ethnographic fieldwork involving women and men born in Senegal and residing in Burgos or Calella either permanently or seasonally, who participate and/or have participated in one or multiple tontines, both in the migratory context and in their home country. The main contribution of this research is the identification of a specific migrants’ tontine constituted by seasonal workers in the tourism sector that I have denominated “seasonal tontine”.