Jeremiah Gaitlin

I was fortunate enough to receive the opportunity to work with returned migrants in Dakar, Senegal this summer through AP. In Dakar I met three groups (OPEN SARL, Naatal Sendou, and Nouvelle Vision) working on migration and development issues. This fellowship allowed me to utilize and expand upon my skills collaborating with these three groups to help organize and secure funding for projects initiated and led by the communities themselves. AP centers local communities and their work by amplifying their voices through skill-building projects and start-up initiatives. Migration is a complex issue and its effects run deep. This fellowship was a great opportunity to provide more nuance to the discussion and to put faces to the stories often read about passively online. I hope that this fellowship will reframe migration as a normal and necessary process that people take when they have exhausted all other options; centering returned migrants, their stories, and the lessons they have learned along the way.