ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the representations of some Nigerian women of their experiences and diverse trajectories in the N.A.Ve social protection programme. It examines micro (individual resources), meso (relational resources: interactions between beneficiaries and practitioners and with family and friends, importance of trust, role of cultural-linguistic mediators) and macro level (policies and programmes) factors. Drawing from the autonomy of migration perspective, and from postcolonial feminism and intersectionality, we will depart from the representation of Nigerian women as victims, to address the main challenges these women encountered in their protection trajectories: reception (rules, co-habitation, free time), on the one side, employment and housing (internships, scarce employment opportunities, importance of networks, limited access to housing), on the other. Time will be a transversal dimension of analysis (entrance in, permanence in, and completion of the social programme) to highlight the tension between biographical and institutional times. Two specific sections will focus on the temporalities of the COVID-19 pandemic and of the transition, of some beneficiaries, to the age of majority.
