60

This article draws on the results of an ethnographic research conducted between 2007 and 2012 among Bamako migrants and students living in Paris. The analysis focuses on the sociological effects of financial transfers on the interviewees belonging to the urban petite bourgeoisie. Results show there is a link between money transfers from France to Mali and the notion of “intergenerational debt”. Transfers allow the migrant to become an active member of the family group and an adult. Also, the debt level is not determined at random, but varies according to the original social background of the interviewees. Financial transfers aim to maintain or even improve the socioeconomic situation of the family in Bamako. They are a stake of social reproduction.