Forced Returns of International Migrants in Senegal: Family Dilemmas Facing Mental Illness

Abstract

This article describes the situation of Senegalese migrants returning to their country of origin because of a mental illness that appeared during the migratory experience. While the international migrant embodies a figure of success, the effects of illness and the temporality of treatment alter his status as a hero. In the context of a moral economy, the family is gradually faced with the dilemma of remaining loyal to the migrant by bearing the cost of his health or giving up investing in a migrant considered more and more as a patient with no productive future. In a context where mental illness is a source of shame and dishonor, some sick migrants are abandoned by their families. They find refuge with murid marabouts specialized in the treatment of mental illnesses. In accordance with the doctrine of labor mouride, the physical and psychic activities deploy therapeutic virtues and are salvatrices. The sufferings of exile and the hardships linked to the disease make sense in the therapeutic work undertaken.