Paper short abstract:

This paper deals with young migrants from Burkina Faso and Senegal having pursued higher education programs in countries of the Middle East.It highlights their strategies to to capitalize on their religious expertise and find employment and social recognition in the local labor market.

Paper long abstract:

Due to a combination of structural adjustment policies, the crisis of African universities and the hardening of western migratory policies, the Islamic universities set up in the Arab world have attracted a large number of West-African students expecting social advancement upon return. This paper is based on ethnographic fieldwork among young migrants from Burkina Faso and Senegal having pursued higher education programs in Egypt, Libya, Syria, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates. It describes the longer term strategies of both postgraduate students who returned home after finishing their theological studies and those who remain in the country where they studied. It highlights the obstacles encountered by the first generations of Arabic-speaking African students to capitalize their religious expertise and to find a lucrative job in the local labor market and a social recognition. It emphasizes the opportunities for the following generations to turn into entrepreneurs in transnational trade.