Street-hawking in a Foreign Land: Social Dynamics of Migrant Petty Traders’ Livelihoods in Nigeria

Abstract

This article investigates how migrant petty trading populations confront social systems/perceptions of their host localities and the effects on the sustainability of their trading activities. I examine clusters of long-term migrant petty traders (LTMs) and very recent migrant petty traders (VRMs) (i.e. from Lake Chad region: Chad, Cameroon and Niger) found in Nigerian peri-urban areas. Adopting Kaufman’s symbolic-analytic model, I argue that a mix of socio-economic factors – peri-urban residents’ negative perception of migrant petty traders, divergence in symbolic attachments, and a low patronage system – affect the growth of the migrant petty trade sector in specific localities.