ABSTRACT
This chapter underscores the point that migrants play an active role in engineering their own circumstances. The migrants emerge as proactive decision makers when their economic strategies are explored and the population is broken into more meaningful social units. Daouda represents the new generation of migrants, who are temporarily displaced and doing in the city what was until recently essentially village work. Millet pounding for a cash wage has an unknown history; it is almost certainly not a traditional commercial activity in the city. The migrants engaging in market/sales activities are dependent on the biweekly market or on itinerant and individual sales in Maradi. A series of analyses was performed to isolate certain occupational characteristics that give a more detailed picture of the migrants' strategies. The story of Garba Garba highlights the precarious existence faced by many seasonal and temporary migrants who live in informal housing in the city and work in the informal economy.
