Adolescent girls’ migration in the Global South: Moving into adulthood

In the past decades, the number of adolescent girls who have migrated internally and internationally in the Global South has increased rapidly. Adolescent migrant girls are often portrayed as victims who are trafficked and exploited, neglecting the ways in which they exert agency with regard to their migrations and mobility. Migration can be one in a constellation of decisions that adolescent girls are making at this critical life phase. In addition, migration has had major implications for the life course of adolescent girls. In this chapter, we address first the ways in which girlhood is conceptualized in the context of the independent movement of adolescents. Second, we discuss the ways in which spatial transition of migration and their experiences at their destinations intersect with migrant girls' personal and social processes of transition to adulthood. The chapter is based on the findings of a two-year qualitative and comparative research project about adolescent girls' migration in Ethiopia and Bangladesh and into Sudan.