Migrating to Procreate: Tales of African Couples

Based on two ethnographic case studies carried out in France and Cameroon, this article uses the prism of gender to analyse the transnational mobility of two couples from Sub-Saharan Africa who are dealing with infertility. Both cases reveal a similar process of male disengagement articulated with a fierce desire on the part of the woman to become pregnant. Reproductive work with medically assisted procreation (MAP), while it may reveal emancipatory practices within the context of sociocultural norms (in particular in terms of marital relationships with a refusal of polygamy), nevertheless continues to rely on the women’s efforts and does not call into question the dichotomy between male productive work and female reproductive work.