When you think about immigrants traveling to western nations, you might assume that it is to permanently resettle amidst conflict in their home countries and to find economic stability. But Fumilayo Showers, an assistant professor of sociology and Africana studies at the University of Connecticut, believes these conceptions overlook critical parts of the migrant experience.
Showers gave a talk on her research about migrant aspirations as part of the UConn Humanities Institute (UCHI) Fellow’s Talk program on Wednesday, Nov. 19. Her presentation was followed by a response by Anna Mae Duane, the director of UCHI and an English professor.
Showers’ research focused on work she did in Ghana in 2018, where she interviewed 38 medical students with the inclination to travel outside the country. By hearing their stories, she found trends about their goals and reasons for wanting to migrate.
“These imagined futures entailed dreams of migrating to countries like the United States only temporarily, to develop their human and social capital, enact cosmopolitan desires and to return to Ghana,” Showers said. “[It is] contrary to popular understandings of African migrants as feverishly leaving at all costs in search of a better life.”
When it comes to underlying factors driving migration, Showers focused on the idea of Afropolitanism. Showers described this concept as “cosmopolitanism with African roots” and “the many ways in which Africans or people of African origin understand themselves as being part of the world rather than being apart.”
Showers built on the idea with her own concept of the “Afropolitan Imaginary.” She said the term refers to the migratory and Afropolitan desires of students in Africa who are interested in travelling outside the continent, even if they do not have the resources to do so.
“The Afropolitan Imaginary therefore references the constellation of ideas, images, messages, mediascapes, belief systems, material objects and actions that celebrate unfettered physical movement, social mobility [and] cultural equity as integral to a modern global African identity and that shape individual desires and aspirations regardless of capability,” Showers said.
Showers shared specific quotes from the interviews, breaking down what these students said and how it connects to her research. One of the points she made was that the students she focused on had goals for temporary travel, not permanent residence in their desired destination.
“Evident in this statement is the recurring theme that going abroad was essential to develop human and social capital,” she said about a particular interview quote. “In the words of this informant, not only will his migration be temporary, but it will pave the way for repeated travel as well.”
Duane followed the talk with a response that commended Showers for the talk and how her research examines and reveals global connectivity.
“You’re showing us really how powerfully media escapes,” Duane said. “Hip-hop, internet searches, friend stories, social media, create what you call a constellation of ideas, images, messages [and] belief systems that make global mobility feel simultaneously close and essential.”
Duane also presented a few questions for Showers, which kicked off the Q&A session. One of Duane’s questions focused on whether Showers was able to follow up with the students she worked with and migration they might have done.
Showers said she has not been able to follow up with the Ghanaian students she worked with. She said she is working on a book about this research and her 2018 findings are more preliminary. She plans on a more thorough exploration that will follow one group of Ghanaian students in their first stage of clinicals and another group of students in their final stage of clinicals, focusing on their migratory goals.
Afterwards, Shower responded to a mix of different questions from attendees in the room, which went deeper into her research findings and how things have changed from 2018 to 2025.
Laura Wagner, a first-semester pursuing a dual degree in economics of sustainable development and management, along with art history, said she came to the talk to learn more about immigration. She said she liked getting to learn more about Afropolitanism and migrant culture, since they are newer topics for her.
“I’m half Vietnamese and my mom has always lived in the US, but she definitely has some of that… idea like, ‘Oh it’s good to go abroad and it’s good to come back and further your knowledge and then come back to the country and do your most work,’” Wagner said. “[The talk] framed the knowledge like migration and brain drain, it deepened my knowledge.”
Feature photo courtesy of UConn Department of Sociology website.