Migrants and Masculinity w/ Mario Schmidt

In this episode, Christoph Brumann talks to Mario Schmidt about
his research that led to his book 'Migrants and masculinity in
High-Rise Nairobi: the pressure of being a man in an African
city'. Among other things, they talk about how many male migrants
design their future on trajectories of personal and economic
growth but have to adjust or indefinitely postpone their plans
once they arrive in Kenya's capital. They also talk about the
pressure these men feel to succeed, the pressure that comes from
romantic partners, spouses, relatives in the country, and
children. Because of this pressure, they create homosocial spaces
in which they participate, where a sense of brotherhood arises
and their sense of pressure is alleviated. They also describe how
male migrants model their financial, physical, and mental
well-being in three different masculine spaces - an ethnically
homogenous investment group, an interethnic gym, and the
semi-digital sphere of self-help books, workshops, and
motivational trainings on man- and fatherhood. The book is
available for open access:
https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/86009