Migrations rurales, accès au foncier et rapports interethniques au sud du Borgou (Benin). Une approche méthodologique plurielle

This article analyses the relations between different ethnic groups of migrants and the autochthonous population in a new immigration area in rural Benin, with a special focus on land issues within the context of local power strategies. The methodological concept is based on triangulation. The intervention of the autochthonous population in the emerging local political orders in migrant settlements encourages the practice of "institution shopping", i.e. the solidification of clientelistic structures, thus increasing the level of venality in the political culture. Allochthonous land appropriation can have dynamic effects on the institutional arrangements of traditional land tenure within the receiving society as well as to an outbreak of previously subliminal conflicts between the populations of various autochthonous villages. In addition, not only the oft discussed conflicts between land owners and migrants dominate the issue of land rights in the immigration area, but also the conflicts within migrant groups. In the "hunt for land", the migrants develop their own strategies of land acquisition, which in turn spawns new conflicts.