Paper short abstract:

'Goorgoorlu' is the Wolof expression for a self-made man, who overcomes obstacles and manages to stay afloat. The transnational, often precaire, migration becomes a form to earn respect and form a masculine gender-identity, yet can stress relationships with family and friends back home.

Paper long abstract:

From a transnational fieldwork with Senegalese and Gambian (Senegambian) migrants in Barcelona, Spain and Senegalese living in Dakar and Saint Louis, Senegal I propose a specific look into transnational migration of Senegambians from a gender perspective.

Why do mostly men migrate? What does this migration or longing to migrate mean for their gender-identity forming? How do these migrant men manage their relationships with family and friends in Senegal and Gambia? How do they manage to form an identity in line with their ideals of masculinity in an foreign, and often precarious situation? And, how do they form transnational links between their new relationships in Spain and their origines in West Africa, for example in the case of foreign love-interests?