African Perspectives on Human Mobility

​Duration: 2008-2012

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Background

owhere is the dearth of current migration data more striking than in Africa, a continent shaped by migration over many centuries. There is minimal knowledge about the forms and patterns of migration across large parts of the continent. As a result, many statements about African mobility are based more on supposition rather than empirical evidence. Much of the current migration research in Africa is grounded in theories and conceptualisations that have emerged from research in industrialised states or a limited set of relatively wealthy developing countries; these are not necessarily applicable to the African context. This combination of the lack of empirical data and the use of inappropriate conceptual frameworks has contributed to distorted and highly simplistic views on the nature of African migrations. More empirical research on African migrations is absolutely essential in order to achieve an improved understanding.

 

In the first year of the 'African Perspectives on Human Mobility' project, more precise research questions and strategies were developed in close collaboration with the research partners in African universities. Initial discussions revealed a shared interest in reconceptualising mobility by challenging notions of destination, transit and arrival. International migration is commonly conceptualised as a movement of people from a sending state to a final destination state, with temporary stops in ‘transit’ along the way. The notion of transit migration has recently been introduced to the research and policy agenda but has been very poorly defined and weakly conceptualised. The failure to explain recent changes in African migration systems is related to lack of empirical research that explores these mixed and changing motivations of African migrants along their migration itineraries.

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Methodology and approach

Phase 1: Developing research network and planning research implementation

Each country partner proposed the research they hoped to undertake within the programme. Other activities included:

• Studying historical and current literature on migration from the country.

• Analysing existing studies and data sets (e.g. the surveys the World Bank is currently conducting in cooperation with national authorities).

• Writing papers containing detailed country migration profiles, reviewing all data and studies available on migration from, to and through the case study countries.

• Exchange visits of researchers to exchange information, discuss methods and help build research capacities.

• Conducting pilot studies in preparation for Phase 2.

 

Phase 2: Case studies

The second phase was dedicated to empirical field research in each of the four countries. The case studies were led by the in-country universities' research teams with support from IMI.

A combination of qualitative and quantitative empirical research (surveys, non-directive interviews, life histories and participant observation) methods were employed depending on the research question.

 

Phase 3: Data analysis, writing up, workshop and dissemination

Phase 3 was dedicated to analysing the data, writing up the research results, and disseminating findings. This included individual country reports, a synthesis report, working papers, journal articles and policy briefs.

During this phase, team members presented their findings at relevant international academic conferences and workshops with practitioners and policy-makers.

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IMI also convened an international workshop on southern perspectives on international migration, including African researchers and participants from migration research networks in Asia-Pacific and Latin America in order to compare empirical and theoretical findings.

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Objectives​

1. To conduct empirical research on key aspects of African migration through comparative case studies in different African countries: initially Nigeria, Ghana, Democratic Republic of Congo and Morocco.

2. To map African migration networks and transnational linkages within Africa and beyond.

3. To strengthen the capacity for ongoing migration research within the African continent, including training young African researchers through workshops, academic exchanges and cooperative projects.

4. To develop new appropriate (and cost-effective) methodologies for migration research in Africa and elsewhere.

5. To review general migration theory and concepts in the light of African perspectives and contribute to the development of new theoretical frameworks for global migration research.

 

The research project will focus on migration to and from Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, and Morocco. These four countries have been chosen as they cover a range of migration experiences but are also linked together by migrant populations. The four case study countries also differ in existing research capacities; this programme will help them to fill in the data gaps and build their capacity

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Funding

This project is supported by a grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation as part of its Initiative on Global Migration and Human Mobility, supporting projects that aim to reshape perceptions of human mobility throughout the world.

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Partners

Nigeria

Led by Professor Afolayan

Department of Geography, University of Ibadan

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Ghana

Led by Dr Mariama Awumbila and Dr Peter Quartey

Centre for Migration Studies, University of Ghana

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Morocco

Led by Professor Mohamed Berriane

Equipe de Recherche sur la Région et la Régionalisation - E3R, Faculté des Lettres et des Sciences Humaines, Mohamed V University Rabat

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Democratic Republic of Congo

Led by Professor Germain NGOIE Tshibambe

Department of International Relations, University of Lubumbashi

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Case Studies - Democratic Republic of Congo

Migration Dynamics in DRC: morphology, logic and impacts in Lubumbashi

Department of International Relations, University of Lubumbashi/Katanga, DRC

This study investigated the changing patterns of emigration from Lubumbashi and immigration to Lubumbashi (of both DR Congolese, Chinese, Indians, Senegalese, and Nigerians); and the impact on both migrant and non-migrant households.

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Lubumbashi is a mining town situated close to the border with Zambia, and in terms of migration, represents a microcosm of the country, with numerous and varied types of flows.

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One motivation of this study was to fill significant gaps in empirical knowledge of migration in DRC, by examining it as a country of immigration, rather than viewing it merely as a country from which people are leaving. The study also examined the articulations between immigration and emigration in the country and analyse the configuration of migrations over time.

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Overview of migration in DRC

Of the project countries, there was probably the least knowledge about migration in the DRC. It is the third largest country in Africa with an estimated population of about 60 million, and has over 200 different language groups.

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DRC's location in the centre of Africa bordering nine neighbouring countries links it into multiple migration systems in different regions of Africa. Given that there are no roads across the country, for many people moving to a neighbouring country is much easier than trying to cross the length of DRC.

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The brutality of the Belgian colonial regime established a pattern of forced migration that has continued to the present day. The chaos of independence, followed by ongoing political tensions and conflict in Central Africa have resulted in large-scale exchanges of refugee movements migration between DRC and most of its neighbours over decades. According to World Bank estimations, currently some 570,000 Congolese are living abroad, of whom 120,000 are in Europe and North America. However, the real number of Congolese abroad, in particular in African countries, is likely to be much higher because many migrants are not registered.

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Although the vast majority of Congolese migrants stay within Africa, there have been significant movements to Belgium and, to a lesser extent, France to study or work. With increasing repression and economic decline in Congo, most did not return.

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Case Studies - Ghana

Changing Mobility Patterns and Livelihood Dynamics in Africa: the Case of Transnational Ghanaian Traders

Centre for Migration Studies, University of Ghana

This study explored the evolution of migratory patterns shaped by trading practices, including regional movements in local markets and emerging links to new destinations such as China and other areas of the Middle and Far East. It also aimed to ascertain the role of transnationalism in the livelihoods of these traders.

The study was conducted in selected markets and shops in Accra and Kumasi. The researchers focussed on the impacts of shifts in the global political economy that have led to a rising mobility of traders from Ghana to the Far and Middle East.

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The research shed light on aspects of historical continuity and discontinuity in terms of the links between trade, mobility, and migration in Ghana, which has a long and significant history of long-distance trading. The study also improved understanding of how the short term moves of traders can lead to more permanent migration and also to immobility.

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Overview of migration in Ghana

Ghana has played a central role in the development of the current West African migration system. The steady movement of population from the interior of the region towards the coasts recorded in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries was dramatically accelerated by colonial demands for labour in the plantations and gold mines of coastal Ghana, especially from Burkina Faso, with whole villages moving to Ghana. For many years, until the late 1960s, Ghana was the leading destination for migrants in the region.

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Increasing repression following the 1966 coup, a declining economy and rising unemployment saw Ghana become a country of net out-migration for the first time. Rising xenophobia led to mass expulsion of, predominantly Nigerian, emigrants in 1969. Between 1974 and 1981, an estimated two million Ghanaian workers left Ghana, primarily for Nigeria and Côte d'Ivoire.

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Faced with a declining economy, Nigeria expelled undocumented migrants in 1985 forcing about 1 million Ghanaians to leave. The blocking of this neighbouring migration destination encouraged skilled and low skilled Ghanaians to expand their horizons to migrate to other parts of Africa. This trend was exacerbated in the 1990s by the descent into war in Côte d’Ivoire, by then West Africa’s only remaining labour migration pole. The crisis of the late 1960s also signalled the start of the large-scale migration of often high skilled Ghanaians out of Africa to Europe and North America, which was accelerated by the expulsion of migrants from Nigeria.

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Case Studies - Morocco

New mobilities around Morocco: viewed through the case of Fes

Equipe de Recherche sur la Région et la Régionalisation (E3R) – Université Mohammed V – Agdal, Maroc

This study looked at the trajectories and motivations of migration among European migrants to Morocco; Sub-Saharan African migrants to Morocco; and the households migrants have left. The study took place in Fes, Morocco.

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The research was largely motivated by an observation of a tendency towards greater complexity of the migratory phenomenon. The study objectives included an attempt to redefine mobility and its various forms; observation of articulations between different forms of migration (eg. international and internal; Moroccan and sub-Saharan); study of transnationalism between migrants and their families; and scrutiny of the impacts of migrations on the sending regions, and relationships between mobility and identity.

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Overview of migration in Morocco

Since the 1960s, Morocco has evolved into one of prime source countries of labour migrants to Europe. Increasing immigration restrictions in Europe did little to stop migration, and have rather led to an increasingly irregular character of migration and the exploration of new destinations beyond the traditional destinations in France and the Benelux.

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Since 1990, Moroccan low skilled emigration has increasingly focused on Italy and Spain, while the higher skilled increasingly migrate to the US and Canada. Over 3 million people of Moroccan descent (out of a total population of 30 million) are currently believed to live abroad. Receiving an estimated $5.2 billion in remittances in 2006, Morocco was the largest remittance receiver in Africa.

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After 1995, Morocco has also evolved into a transit country for migrants and refugees from sub-Saharan Africa. Although many of them attempt to cross to Europe, those failing or not venturing to enter Europe prefer to stay in Morocco as a second-best option rather than to return to their more unstable, unsafe, and substantially poorer home countries. Their presence confronts Moroccan society with an entirely new set of social and legal issues typical for immigration countries, issues that do not yet resonate with Morocco’s self-image as an emigration country.

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Case Studies - Nigeria

Dynamics of International Migrant Traders in Nigeria

Department of Geography, University of Ibadan, Nigeria

This study sought to understand the dynamics, determinants and consequences of the mobility and international migration of migrant traders from Nigeria.

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Overview of migration in Nigeria

As the most populous country of Africa, with an estimated population of over 130 million, Nigeria plays a key role in the evolution of African migrations. While the post-independence (1960) period was dominated by emigration to other West African countries, in particular Ghana, this pattern was reversed after mass expulsions of Nigerians from Ghana in 1969 and the 1973 Oil Crisis when oil-rich Nigeria started to attract labour migrants from all over West and Central Africa.

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The post 1981 decrease in oil prices and associated economic downturn alongside with political repression transformed Nigeria from a net immigration to a net emigration country. Despite this growth in emigration, almost 1 million West African migrants and refugees are still believed to live in Nigeria. According to official estimates, at least 800,000 Nigerians are believed to live abroad, but the real figure is likely to be far higher. Yearly remittances are estimated at levels of around US$5 billion.

 

Nigeria is an important link between coastal West Africa, Central Africa and the beginning of the trans-Saharan routes through Niger to Libya and Morocco. As a result, it has become an important staging post for migrants and refugees moving north, often to join Maghrebis in their attempts to cross to Europe.