Views on Migration in Sub-Saharan Africa docx

titlepage 6/23/06 2:34 PM Page VIEWS ON MIGRATION IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA Proceedings of an African Migration Alliance Workshop Edited by Catherine Cross Derik Gelderblom Niel Roux Jonathan Mafukidze Published by HSRC Press, Private Bag X9182, Cape Town, 8000, South Africa, www.hsrcpress.ac.za in association with Department of Social Development, Private Bag X901, Pretoria, 0001, South Africa, www.population.gov.za © 2006 Human Sciences Research Council and Department of Social Development, South Africa First published 2006 The views expressed in this publication are those of the authors and should not be considered to imply the views held by the Department of Social Development All rights reserved No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers ISBN 0-7969-2165-2 Copy editing by Vaun Cornell Typeset by Jenny Wheeldon Cover design by Flame Design Print management by comPress Distributed in Africa by Blue Weaver PO Box 30370, Tokai, Cape Town, 7966, South Africa Tel: +27 (0) 21 701 4477 Fax: +27 (0) 21 701 7302 email: orders@blueweaver.co.za www.oneworldbooks.com Distributed in Europe and the United Kingdom by Eurospan Distribution Services (EDS) Henrietta Street, Covent Garden, London, WC2E 8LU, United Kingdom Tel: +44 (0) 20 7240 0856 Fax: +44 (0) 20 7379 0609 email: orders@edspubs.co.uk www.eurospangroup.com Distributed in North America by Independent Publishers Group (IPG) Order Department, 814 North Franklin Street, Chicago, IL 60610, USA Call toll-free: (800) 888 4741 All other enquiries: +1 (312) 337 0747 Fax: +1 (312) 337 5985 email: frontdesk@ipgbook.com www.ipgbook.com Contents List of tables v List of figures vii Acknowledgements viii Acronyms and abbreviations x Introduction Catherine Cross and Elizabeth Omoluabi PART 1: CONTINENTAL OVERVIEWS Leading issues in international migration in sub-Saharan Africa 25 Aderanti Adepoju Levels of urbanisation in Anglophone, Lusophone and Francophone African countries 48 Oumar Bouare Migration between Africa and Australia: Patterns, issues and implications 74 Graeme Hugo PART 2: REGIONAL VIEWS ON MIGRATION IN AFRICA A discussion of migration and migration patterns and flows in Africa 103 Jonathan Mafukidze Migration and refugees in Eastern Africa: A challenge for the East African Community 130 John O Oucho A new challenge for the international community: Internally displaced people in the Great Lakes Region 148 Franck Kamunga Cibangu The INDEPTH Network: A demographic resource on migration and urbanisation in Africa and Asia 159 Mark Collinson and Kubaje Adazu PART 3: SOME CLOSER VIEWS OF COUNTRIES AND ISSUES Migrants’ contribution to rural development in southwestern Nigeria 175 Akinyemi Akanni, Olaopa Olawale and Oloruntimehin Funmi 10 Spatio-temporal patterns and trends of international migration in Botswana and their policy implications 186 Thando D Gwebu 11 Francophone Africans in Cape Town: A failed migration? 207 Rodolf Lekogo 12 Myth and rationality in Southern African responses to migration, displacement, and humanitarianism 220 Loren B Landau 13 Synthesis and conclusions: What are Africa’s issues in migration? 245 Catherine Cross, Elizabeth Omoluabi, John Oucho and Franck Kamunga Cibangu Contributors 290 List of tables Table 3.1 Table 3.2 Table 3.3 Table 3.4 Table 3.5 Table 3.6 Table A3.1 Table A3.2 Table A3.3 Table 4.1 Table 4.2 Table 4.3 Table 4.4 Table 4.5 Table 4.6 Table 4.7 Table 4.8 Table 4.9 Table 4.10 Table A4.1 Urbanisation levels of Anglophone, Lusophone and Francophone countries in study (percentage) 50 Estimated number of rural-urban migrants, 1985–1990 54 Estimated number of rural-urban migrants, 1985–1990 to 2000–2005 55 Coefficients of correlation between urbanisation levels and GDP growth rates 59 Share of rural-urban migrants in the urban population (percentage) 62 Urbanisation rates, 1985–2005 (percentage) 65 Estimated number of rural-urban migrants, 1990–1995 68 Estimated number of rural-urban migrants, 1995–2000 69 Estimated number of rural-urban migrants, 2000–2005 71 Stocks of Africa-born persons in OECD nations around 2000 76 African countries: size of diaspora in OECD nations, 2000 79 Change in the composition of the Australian population by place of birth, 1947–2001 84 Australia: Number of persons born in Southern and Eastern African nations, 1986–2001 85 Settler arrivals born in sub-Saharan Africa compared with total intake according to eligibility category, 2003–2004 87 Arrivals and departures of skilled health workers in Australia, 1993–2004 88 Settler arrivals in Australia from Africa under the RefugeeHumanitarian Program, 1997–2003 89 Settler arrivals in Australia from Africa, 1993–1994 to 2003–2004 90 Australia and sub-Saharan Africa-born: selected occupational and educational characteristics, 2001 94 Employment experience of immigrants to Australia 95 Australia: Africa-born population, 1996–2001 97 v V I E W S O N M I G R AT I O N I N S U B - S A H A R A N A F R I C A Table 6.1 Table 6.2 Table 6.3 Table 6.4 Table 9.1 Table 9.2 Table 9.3 Table 10.1 Table 10.2 Table 10.3 Table 10.4 Table 10.5 vi Refugee population in the GLR, East Africa and the HOA, 1995 and 2001 134 Number of people requiring relief in 2002 due to conflict 138 Percentage distribution of immigrant population in Uganda, 1969–1991 140 Issues, policies and key gaps in international migration and refugee concerns in selected countries of the GHA region 142 Percentage distribution of respondents by background information 177 Percentage distribution of assessment of service delivery and investment portfolios in place of residence and home town 179 Percentage distribution by assessment of associations’ contribution to home-town development 184 Growth in paid employment and labour force, 1964–1976 187 Sex ratio of absentees by age 189 Percentage of absentees by marital status 189 Percentage of absentees by destination and socio-economic activity 190 Percentage of de facto population by region of origin in 2001 196 List of figures Figure 3.1 Urbanisation levels in Africa, 2004 52 Figure 4.1 Figure 4.8 Distribution of South Africa-born, Nigeria-born, Congo Democratic Republic-born and Angola-born expatriates in OECD nations, 2000 77 Africa-born population in Australia, 1861–2001 81 Immigrants to Australia from Africa, 1945–2004 83 Immigrants to Australia from Africa as a percentage of total immigrants, 1945–2004 83 Distribution of birthplace of settlers to Australia, 1970 91 Distribution of birthplace of settlers to Australia, 2004 91 Age and sex distribution of the Africa-born permanent and long-term arrivals, 1994–1995 to 2003–2004, and the total Australian population, 2001 92 Africa: origins of settler arrivals, 1993–2003 93 Figure 8.1 A global perspective on INDEPTH 168 Figure 10.1 Figure 10.2 Figure 10.3 Figure 10.4 Figure 10.5 Figure 10.6 Potential destinations of skilled emigrants 191 Percentage of absentees, 1971–2001 193 Pull factors on potential migrants 194 Number of non-Batswana, 1971–2001 196 Total arrivals, 1992–2003 197 Deportees, 1993–2004 198 Figure 4.2 Figure 4.3 Figure 4.4 Figure 4.5 Figure 4.6 Figure 4.7 vii Acknowledgements The editors wish to thank the following persons for their contributions to the production of this volume and to the March 2005 founding workshop of the African Migration Alliance (AMA) on which this book is largely based Aside from the authors themselves – several of whom also made substantial contributions beyond their papers alone – they are, in alphabetical order: • Sofiane Boudhiba who was informed at the last minute that he could not travel to South Africa to present his paper on migration to North Africa; • John Daniel who kindly offered the HSRC Press services to produce this volume and was willing to give an important extension of time for the manuscript to be submitted for copy editing and publication; • Mike de Klerk who secured HSRC funding to cover a large component of the workshop expenses; • Pieter Kok who assisted with the planning of the workshop and played an important part in the preparations for the production of this book; • Welhelminah Ledwaba who was co-responsible for all travel and other logistical arrangements before and during the workshop; • Olga Mabitsela who assisted with the planning of the workshop and chaired the opening session; • Wesley Malebo who assisted with the planning of the workshop but could not attend due to severe illness; • Simphiwe Mini who assisted with the planning of the workshop and chaired a workshop session; • Hester Roberts who assisted with logistical arrangements and invitations to release this publication; • Leon Swartz who assisted with the planning of the workshop and gave the official opening address at the founding workshop; • Jennifer van Rensburg who was co-responsible for all travel and other logistical arrangements before and during the workshop and has provided indispensable secretarial and other services during the process leading up to the production of this monograph; • Linda van Staden who played an important part in the production of this publication and the planning and strategic arrangements for its release; viii • • Jacques van Zuydam who assisted with the planning of the workshop and secured the funding required to host the founding workshop producing this publication and the event for its release, from the Department of Social Development; Marie Wentzel who assisted with the planning of the workshop and was responsible for the initial invitations and strategic arrangements, and also played an important part in the preparations for the production of this publication The editors would also like to extend special thanks to all the members of the AMA Steering Committee, for their hard work before and since the workshop itself, which has contributed greatly toward this volume Spanning the whole of the continent from government bodies to the non-governmental organisation sector, they are Elizabeth Omoluabi, John Oucho, Franck Kamunga Cibangu, Carol Lombard, Niel Roux and Catherine Cross Phambili ukucwaninga! ix Acronyms and abbreviations ACAP AFRD AMA AU COMESA DDNA DFID DoHA DRC DSS EAC ECOWAS EU FARDC FDLR FGD GDP GHA GHAMP GLR HDSS HOA HRDC HSRC ICCPR IDP IMP x African Census Analysis Project African Foundation for Research and Development African Migration Alliance African Union Common Market for East and Southern Africa Digital Diaspora Network Africa Department for International Development (United Kingdom) Department of Home Affairs (South Africa) Democratic Republic of Congo Demographic surveillance system East African Community Economic Community of West African States European Union Forces armées de la RDC Forces Democratiques de Liberation du Rwanda Focus group discussion Gross domestic product Greater Horn of Africa Greater Horn of Africa Migration Project Great Lakes Region Health and Demographic Surveillance System Horn of Africa Human Resources Development Centre Human Sciences Research Council International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights Internally displaced person International Migration Policy V I E W S O N M I G R AT I O N I N S U B - S A H A R A N A F R I C A assign them specifically to a specialised body able to assist with difficulties or look after their daily needs for survival Because of budgetary constraints, the UNHCR estimates that its mandate does not yet extend to the constituency of internally displaced people, although their number world-wide is almost equal to the number of refugees According to Kamunga Cibangu’s own experience as a human rights activist, large numbers out of the millions who fled the conflict are still living in conditions of severe deprivation and misery His paper calls for an African Convention on Displaced Persons, for strengthening of the powers of the International Criminal Court in relation to human rights crimes against displaced people, and for Africa’s full ratification of an enabling statute The AMA workshop also raised a number of other issues where current migration-related policies in Africa are not yet well in place Bouare raised issues of sustainability in relation to rural-to-urban migration, coming onto the larger issue of migration management by governments, and questioned rural development planning in this light Collinson and Adazu’s discussion pointed to the need to get to grips more effectively with the migration-related consequences of disease factors and health, where migrants are often accused of spreading disease, and may sometimes so in fact Mafukidze brought up the long-term problem of inherited colonial boundaries and their effects on migration, and Akinyemi et al commented on the role of migrants’ associations in helping the diaspora to contribute to local and national development Kihato referred to the burden placed on women migrants by inappropriate or inadequate laws around immigration policy in South Africa specifically In the discussion sessions, Adepoju and Oucho praised the paper by Akinyemi and his co-workers, and raised the question of where Africa’s next generation of migration researchers would come from In his chapter, Adepoju comments: The huge vacuum in tertiary educational institutions of experienced leaders in research for development and training of the manpower required for a variety of development activities accentuates poverty and creates additional migration pressures One immediate impact is the lack of capacity to undertake, or adapt findings of cutting edge research for development In many 278 SYNTHESIS AND CONCLUSIONS African countries today, students are being churned out without the requisite rigour of learning Many of these issues relate in various ways to the problem of ensuring adequate data collection for migration statistics in Africa Migration data needs A number of the AMA authors referred to Africa’s migration data needs in their workshop papers, and several made it their central concern Gaps exist in migration data from most of the developing world as well as in much of the developed world, as Collinson and Adazu point out in their chapter Speaking of the kind of research project he envisions for East Africa, Professor John Oucho states in his conclusion that the shortage of migration data for this region requires intensive research As he comments: Research will engage credible research institutions, collect information from governments and their development partners as well as from the populace, develop knowledge and information bases, and inform policy, gradually leading to the establishment of rational programmes and response mechanisms Oucho also ties the mainstreaming of migration research needs to development policy and planning on both national and international scales In doing so, he connects it to the widely-seen need to harmonise migration policies across regions and across Africa: For migration to be positively perceived as an integral part of national development, it should be factored into national planning in all… countries Every government should harmonise migration concerns in the various relevant ministries or departments – such as Home Affairs, Internal Security, Labour and Foreign Affairs – as well as into the sectoral ministries most affected by emigration and immigration Such national capacity building is a prequisite for meaningful participation of Greater Horn of Africa countries in the various organisations to which they belong – EAC, IGAD, COMESA, NEPAD and the AU – all of which embrace migration and refugee issues 279 V I E W S O N M I G R AT I O N I N S U B - S A H A R A N A F R I C A However, collecting the right data to sustain migration mainstreaming into policy is not necessarily an easy undertaking Loren Landau of the Forced Migration Studies Programme at Wits draws attention to the underlying assumptions that define research agendas, and to the practical difficulties the use of data presents for migration research and data gathering He comments: While scientific data is an essential foundation for… effective policy, there are no guarantees that our research will be used to these ends Although government officials regularly commission research… it is more often popular perceptions, political calculations and deeply embedded understandings of the mechanisms which drive our world that inform policy… in a world in which issues of migration and immigration are highly politicised – often far beyond reason – we must be constantly aware of how taken-for-granted assumptions, political logics, and internalised or institutionalised cognitive schema shape both the production and consumption of knowledge Oucho also observes that governments may be tempted to adjust the migration statistics they have in terms of the impression they feel they need to make He remarks: Individual governments of the GHA states no doubt know the number of refugees they host, but may underestimate of overestimate it depending on the response they wish to attract from the international community In addition to pitfalls of this kind in relation to how migration data is sought, and how once collected it is understood and used against a political background, practical issues in data identification and collection also represent a major barrier to developing effective migration data for the African continent Mark Collinson, of Wits University’s Agincourt migration unit, and Kubaje Adazu, of Kenya’s Kisumu Health and Demographic Surveillance System, wrote about the INDEPTH Africa/Asia initiative for long-term data collection in demography and health They point out that: ‘migration has emerged as a phenomenally important reference point for most cultures as well as all disciplines in the social sciences’ They further note that measurements for migration in the developing world require not only standard baseline measurement techniques, but also approaches which can capture the social and societal aspects of population movement and demographic change: 280 SYNTHESIS AND CONCLUSIONS There is presently a lacuna in demographic information available from underdeveloped countries that can address the demographic, health and socioeconomic transformations under way in these populations Moreover, these transitions are occurring in new ways with new patterns and relationships that not follow the conventional transition models with regard to health, economics, urbanisation, and so on Censuses provide de facto, nationallevel, cross-sectional data, which are invaluable, particularly when calibrated against other sources; national surveys allow deeper inquiry and can offer retrospective longitudinality, but neither of these methods are fitted out to address the complex, intertwining issues of social transformations Their argument puts forward the need for linking migration and demographic change to health concerns, most strongly highlighted in the link between migration and HIV/AIDS Considering migration data more broadly, Vincent Williams of SAMP drew attention in his verbal presentation to problems in harmonising migration data collection across countries, difficulties experienced by many developing countries in taking up and making use of migration data once it is in hand, and the serious problems posed by illegal and/or unrecorded migration across borders, which normally evades official data records and is very difficult to estimate Tara Polzer, of the Wits Forced Migration Studies unit, gave a presentation which emphasised the problems around recording migration data when the status of ‘migrant’ partly depends on the migrant’s changeable intention to return home at a future time or to remain in the host country Looking at African migration data from his knowledge of Australia’s specialised and standardised immigration statistics, Professor Graeme Hugo puts forward some of the options which migration data collection in Africa might make use of in the future He argues for high-quality stock and flow data on international migration together with a national longitudinal survey In terms of information collected officially in order to understand migration flows entering and leaving the country, he notes: Each person entering or leaving Australia is required to complete arrival or departure cards containing questions on citizenship, birthplace, birth date, gender, occupation, marital status, type of movement, origin/destination, reason [for short-term movers 281 V I E W S O N M I G R AT I O N I N S U B - S A H A R A N A F R I C A only], and address in Australia This information forms the basis of the Movements Data Base (MDB), which is one of the few in the world to contain comprehensive information on both immigrants and emigrants Shifting his focus to stocks of migrants – the numbers and relevant characteristics of the in-migrants living inside Australia as of a given date – Hugo refers to census data and says: … a comprehensive range of questions have been asked, especially in postwar censuses Of particular interest was the introduction in 1971 of a birthplace of parents question… Censuses have been conducted in Australia each five years since 1961 and have a low rate of under-enumeration (less than 2%) The census allows us to identify the first generation migrants and their Australia-born children and a number of their characteristics with a high degree of accuracy He adds: However, the census does not provide information on former residents who have emigrated out of Australia… In African nations with significant emigration rates it would be advisable to consider the introduction of questions into decennial censuses which detect emigration Acknowledging the difficulties presented for data collection by migrants’ intentions, Hugo concludes: Australia’s international migration has undergone a transformation in the last decade which has seen non-permanent migration increase in significance Australian migration flow data allows a detailed analysis to be made of the complex two-way flows of long-term and short-term movers between Australia and the African nations Hugo, Adepoju, Oucho and several others among the AMA authors underline the changes since 1990 in the character of migration flows involving the African continent, seeing it as a development which will require careful reflection on migration data collection and data collection methods 282 SYNTHESIS AND CONCLUSIONS Summary, conclusions, recommendations: migration moving forward? In the views of the AMA workshop authors, both policy measures and supporting research are needed to deal with the expanding phenomenon of migration originating in Africa Driven by declines in the established centres of economic activity and in levels of effective governance, there seems to be no question that migration rates on the African continent are rising, and that migration outflows from Africa are now reaching far-distant destinations never previously accessed Bridgehead settlements of the African diaspora have begun to appear on some scale in unexpected parts of the world At the same time, there have been massive internal displacements in some parts of the continent due to conflict and natural disaster, creating refugee-type crises on a scale that existing international agencies cannot fully deal with at present levels of resourcing To a considerable extent, these new migration flows represent people in Africa at village and community level joining the global economy, forced to take on new risks by the failure of the old land economy and of earlier earning mechanisms A wide-scale reorientation of gender roles appears to be on the cards as women’s participation in migrant earning increases Migration impacts on this scale will lead to fundamental change across Africa Migration routes into the future? Toward recommendations Africa’s situation in regard to migration is no longer what it was even ten years ago Taken together, the AMA workshop papers show that all of Africa is probably now one super-region with respect to migration That is, economic migration flows from all over the continent are no longer confined within the regions, but are now moving increasingly toward one dominant destination region in the south The demographic and economic implications of Africa coming together into a single migration system will be considerable Under the AU, and pushed on by increasing poverty, the old boundaries of the regions have suddenly become porous, and may crumble The AMA workshop papers show clearly that the regional hub countries for the entire continent are now Botswana and South Africa There the sudden realignment of flows southward is creating significant tensions and rising xenophobia, even as these economies are gaining speed 283 V I E W S O N M I G R AT I O N I N S U B - S A H A R A N A F R I C A Overseas, other destination countries are now being integrated into the African migration system as the globalised world consolidates its transport and trade links But with human inflows from the developing world strengthening, xenophobia is also an acute factor in Europe and even in the United States, historically an immigrant country itself In the Far East, China needs workers and has partly abandoned its historic influx control measures with respect to its own rural population, but most of the industrialised East countries remain strongly xenophobic in relation to foreign in-migration But with migration flows rising at all levels, exclusion remains a problem In order for African migration flows to stabilise in a new and wider world system, migration flows to the new destinations need to become accepted in contexts where they are currently contentious This process of allaying xenophobia for world migration to become a commonplace event is likely to be largely a matter of time: Europe in particular is likely to come to realise over the next ten to 20 years that it is threatened more urgently by its own ageing demography and falling birth rate than by the arrival of economic migrants from the developing world Accurate information is needed to promote this result Against this background there was general agreement at the AMA workshop on the need to promote better migration statistics, as well as to support capacity building where necessary Perhaps the most important call is for appropriate migration policies covering all the tricky issues brought forward Landau’s chapter refers to the prevalence of mythology about migration in policy circles, and the need to adopt new frameworks that go beyond popular stereotypes to address the changes taking place For Africa itself, poverty continues to act as the main migration driver, exacerbated by war, conflict, political instability and natural disaster The AMA workshop papers show graphically how loss of other economic support options continues to force residents of poor countries to move to cities and cross borders in pursuit of livelihoods for their families: the general level of African migration is rising tidally as a result, and surging toward the south as the former regional migration destinations have been overwhelmed Here the work of Gwebu and Campbell on Botswana provides the limiting case – their nation represents a formerly poor country which has successfully overcome the need for cross-border economic migration to fight internal 284 SYNTHESIS AND CONCLUSIONS poverty With good governance and a strong, expanding economy, Botswana appears to have reached the top of the S-curve of rising migration and successfully made the migration transition: migration outflows have peaked and are declining as the country increasingly employs its own citizens at a decent level of earning Unfortunately, this kind of success itself attracts in-migration, and has been associated in Botswana with rising xenophobia, suspicion and resentment of the new wave of foreign in-migration This popular reaction has recently resulted in anti-foreign legislation being passed to discourage in-migration Within Africa as well, and especially in Botswana and South Africa which are now the super-regional beacon countries for migration, there is a clear need for the new migration paths to become more accepted But beyond xenophobia, Africa as a super-region needs to leave behind the historical epoch in which unceasing local wars have tried to redress the instability left behind by the colonial boundary construction based on Europe’s political interests Through its regional and super-regional institutions, the continent needs to ensure that the colonial legacy should no longer provoke the conflict-driven severe population displacements documented by Oucho, Adepoju and Cibangu among others Here the free movement of people and more open borders is perhaps one of the ways forward in relieving tensions It should be noted, however, that South African policy at present does not support free movement, either now or as a goal in the near future Toward free movement of peoples However, this path forward may not be an easy one, and will need both courage and judgement A new era of high migration, driven by conflict and by large economic differentials, will require that some very difficult questions be confronted in order for large migration flows to be catered for successfully These questions pertain to the issues raised by the AMA workshop’s emphasis on free movement, and deal with the human rights of migrants in relation to the rights of the host country people These issues – in an age of human rights discourse – are still not clearly worked out, but are becoming increasingly urgent 285 V I E W S O N M I G R AT I O N I N S U B - S A H A R A N A F R I C A This also raises the fundamental issue of controls over migration as opposed to free movement This is the root issue which has so far prevented the adoption of the AU’s Strategic Framework provisions for free movement of peoples Where they are not held back by national self-interest, migration protocols are increasingly aligning with international human rights thinking, which tends to give wide legitimacy to the migration process as a product of poverty and desperation This discourse rarely, if ever, stops to ask: ‘Do we violate the human rights of the host populations if we understand the right to migration as a human right, and therefore unlimited?’ That is, should any number of migrants legitimately claim legal status, jobs and services, at public expense, in any destination area? If the world community concedes that we are all our brothers’ keepers, as it ultimately must, the next question could be: ‘How many of our brothers can we afford to keep?’ As a percentage of its own population, is there a limit to how many arriving migrants can be sustained at a destination? Are the rights of migrants only what human rights experts would class as a matter of ‘progressive realisation’, allowing governments to provide only at a rate they can reasonably afford, depending on how many migrants actually arrive? At present, rich countries not accept an unlimited rights-based obligation For international migrants, they impose strict limits on how many outside migrants will be accepted, and what their qualifications should be These formal limits not prevent large numbers of the poor from disregarding the restrictions, and becoming undocumented, illegal migrants who arrive with few if any legal rights, and for whom host governments try to limit their legal responsibilities On a smaller scale, attitudes encountered by internal ruralto-urban migrants are often similar With their adoption of free movement standards, the governments of East and West Africa are far ahead of the rich world on migrant rights Under a protocol of free movement, how significant is the risk that very large numbers of in-migrants would arrive in the better-off countries of Africa? Although international migration today does not usually transfer large numbers of people from one country to another, it is historically possible: nearly half the population of Ireland may have migrated overseas following the devastating famine of 1845–48, with more than three million reportedly arriving in the United States This scale of inflow was 286 SYNTHESIS AND CONCLUSIONS accommodated through land dispossession of the indigenous population on a massive scale For free movement in Africa, a lot will depend on the size of the differentials in income and productivity that drive migration Average GDP per capita in South Africa is 12 times that recorded in 2005 for Kenya; but GDP for Britain is 85 times the figure for Kenya Meanwhile Kenya, till recently a destination country, has a per capita GDP on the same order as that of Nigeria – mainly a sending country – but actually a little lower, suggesting that country income differentials inside West Africa are probably not as great as those between the present free movement region and the Southern Cone If so, any rapid decision within SADC to allow free movement for the whole of the African super-region could be problematic in terms of the reaction of their own nationals, and perhaps in relation to governments’ national security concerns Likewise, the success of ECOWAS and the EAC with free movement would not necessarily predict the same success for the southern region in the short term However, in the longer term, free movement of peoples throughout Africa – and increased trade – is surely the only effective answer to international exclusion and the relation of migration to poverty, and to Africa’s larger development needs Going in the direction pointed by the AMA workshop, it would seem that Africa must move inevitably toward progressive relaxation of migration controls, over as short a period as possible The example of Botswana – which is approaching income parity with South Africa – points to some of the possibilities, and it is now hoped that Africa as a whole is beginning a period of relatively high growth In the medium term, work is needed toward processes that will allow freer movement with better documentation, easier transit and more transparent monitoring of people who enter and leave, while also contributing better national and regional migration data Toward recommendations In the light of what the AMA workshop authors have put forward in relation to Africa’s issues in migration, some points can tentatively be made toward formulating a research and policy agenda In terms of the workshop results, and to clarify and advance Africa’s policy situation in regard to migration, the following research, conventions and discussions should be considered: 287 V I E W S O N M I G R AT I O N I N S U B - S A H A R A N A F R I C A Urgent priorities: • • • • Data needs: An Africa-wide convention on migration data collection to promote standard indicators and procedures; Free movement: Research to inform national policies in support of protocols for the free movement of peoples continent-wide; Trafficking: An Africa-wide convention on policy measures for human trafficking and child migration; Environmental migration: Research work on environmental refugees and policies to manage environmental migration Specific factors: • • • Trends and policy: Work on analysis of migration trends in relation to existing policies; Migration routes: Research efforts to more clearly define existing migration routes and options in relation to profiles of the migrants who use each of them; Language regions: Comparisons of trends and indicators in Francophone, Anglophone and Lusophone areas to establish differences and the factors associated Migration management: • • • • Bureaucracy and migrants: Research into bureaucratic and administrative responses to migration and migrants, and their empirical effects; Undocumented migration: Research work directed to data on undocumented and illegal migration; Migration management: Review of migration drivers by region in relation to management options; Best practice: Review of current legislation to help define best practice for migration management Critical topics: • 288 Xenophobia: Review of best practice for education of officials and the public against xenophobia; SYNTHESIS AND CONCLUSIONS • • • Diaspora: Research toward a demographic, social and economic profile of the African diaspora, reflecting class structure, migration drivers and skills lost; Gender: Expanded research into disincentives affecting women migrants and the household-level effects of women’s migration on gender roles; Remittances: Attempts to estimate the scale of undocumented remittances by country and region Addressing displacement: • • Environmental disasters: A conference on disaster planning and international co-ordination among concerned institutions; Provision for IDPs: A conference on human rights needs of IDPs and refugees from war and disaster, with a view to better funding References AU (African Union) (2003) Draft Strategic Framework for a Policy on Migration in Africa AU Commission, Social Affairs Department Addis Ababa: AU DFID (Department for International Development) (2003) Migration in West Africa: A summary of key findings DFID Briefing Paper; Migration, Globalization and Poverty Brighton, UK: DFID Development Research Centre/Sussex Centre for Migration Research IOM (International Organization for Migration) (2003) World migration 2003 Geneva: IOM 289 Contributors Kubaje Adazu Kisumu Health and Demographic Surveillance System, Center for Disease Control, Kenya Medical Research Institute, Kenya Aderanti Adepoju Human Resources Development Centre, Lagos, Nigeria Akinyemi Akanni Department of Demography and Social Statistics, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria Oumar Bouare Association des Economistes Maliens (AEM) (Association of Malian Economists), Paris, France Franck Kamunga Cibangu Droits Humaines Sans Frontières, Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo Mark Collison Agincourt Health and Population Unit, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa Catherine Cross Human Sciences Research Council, Pretoria, South Africa Oloruntimehin Funmi Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria 290 Thando D Gwebu Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Botswana, Botswana Graeme Hugo National Centre for Social Applications of GIS, University of Adelaide, Australia Loren B Landau Forced Migration Studies Programme, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa Rodolf Lekogo Department of Sociology of Development, University of Stellenbosch, South Africa Jonathan Mafukidze African Migration Alliance Secretariat, Human Sciences Research Council, Pretoria, South Africa Olaopa Olawale Department of Political Science, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria Elizabeth Omoluabi PohDev International, N’Djamena, Chad John O Oucho African Population and Environment Institute, Nairobi, Kenya Niel Roux Department of Social Development, Pretoria, South Africa 291 ... Geneva: International Labour Organization 22 Part CONTINENTAL OVERVIEWS 23 CHAPTER Leading issues in international migration in subSaharan Africa Aderanti Adepoju Introduction Sub-Saharan Africa. .. VIEWS ON MIGRATION IN AFRICA A discussion of migration and migration patterns and flows in Africa 103 Jonathan Mafukidze Migration and refugees in Eastern Africa: A challenge for the East African... point at which migration will begin to fall In the rich destination countries, increasingly concerns are being raised about what can be done to curb immigration Quoting Hatton and Williamson