Fostering Free Movement of Persons in West Africa: Achievements, Constraints, and Prospects for Intraregional Migration

Migration in West Africa is strongly influenced by poverty, depressed economies, and socio-political crises. The influx of migrants into the cities and irregular migrations across national borders in search of decent living conditions reflect a crisis of development. To understand the dynamics of these diverse migrations, we focus on causes and changing configurations of emerging migratory flows; autonomous female migration, trafficking in women and children; intraregional migration as alternatives to "illegal" migration to the North; progress and constraints in creating a borderless subregion and fostering intraregional migration.
The abolition of the mandatory residency permit, introduction of Brown Card travel certificates, and the elimination of the ubiquitous border formalities are aimed at facilitating intraregional movements of persons. Progress was constrained by multiple cooperation groupings and memberships, conflicting objectives, inconsistent political support, growing national identity, depressed economies, and xenophobia against "foreigners". We suggest that governments should align national employment laws with regional treaties, protect the rights of migrant workers, promote pro-poor employment strategies, adopt variable speed approach in implementing migration policies, and enforce migrants' rights of residence and establishment.     

Physical planning within the framework of National Development Planning in Nigeria

Nigeria has had experience with 5 Development Plans. In each of these successive national and state development plans, mention is made of physical planning problems — especially the urbanisation problem in Nigeria — a problem compounded by the ever-increasing rate of rural to urban migration. In this paper, an attempt will be made to review the priority given to physical planning in each of the successive National Development Plans, to examine the constraints on effective physical planning in Nigeria, and to propose strategies that will ensure proper integration of physical planning with national development planning.     

Regional Organizations and Intra-Regional Migration in Sub-Saharan Africa: Challenges and Prospects

Africa is a region of diverse migration circuits relating to origin, destination and transit for labour migrants, undocumented migrants, refugees and brain circulation of professionals.
This article outlines major migration configurations in the region, and the role of two vibrant subregional organizations — Economic Community of West African States and South African Development Community — in facilitating, containing or curtailing intra-regional migration which takes place within diverse political, economic, social and ethnic contexts; the transformation of brain drain into brain circulation; and commercial migration in place of labour migration within the region.
Despite overlapping membership, wavering political support, a poor transportation network, border disputes and expulsions, these subregional organizations are crucial for the region's collective integration into the global economy, and to enhance economic growth and facilitate labour intraregional migration.
Free movement of persons without visa, adoption of ECOWAS travellers' cheques and passports, the creation of a borderless Community; and the granting of voting rights and later citizenship and residence permits by South Africa to migrant workers from SADC countries are positive developments.
These organizations need to foster cooperation between labour-exporting and recipient countries, implement the protocols on the right of residence and establishment; promote dialogue and cooperation in order to harmonize, coordinate and integrate their migration policies as envisioned by the 1991 Abuja Treaty establishing the African Economic Community.     

Illegals and expulsion in Africa: the Nigerian experience

The persistence and widespread nature of undocumented migration in Africa is due to 1) the absence of barriers or the arbitrariness of national frontiers, 2) the large stretch of unpoliced borders, 3) ignorance about the existence of borders, and 4) the absence or inadequacy of migration laws and regulations in both the countries of origin and destination. The free movement of persons in Africa has a long tradition. Over a large part of Africa, international migration is regarded as an extension of internal migration. The free movement of persons across frontiers in Africa historically has been facilitated by the cultural affinity of communities divided by international boundaries and the colonial policies of both the French and British. The "migration" of nomads pays little regard to international borders and is largely undocumented, even in national censuses. The frontier workers along the borders of Uganda and Kenya where members of the same extended family live on both sides of the borders and commute daily are statistically regarded as international migrants, without regard for the sociocultural realities of the African situation. Political independence substantially altered the erstwhile free movement of persons across African countries as national governments enacted immigration laws and regulations. The newly independent countries wanted to reserve employment for nationals. The Sahelian drought, internal strife in Chad, the deteriorating economic situation in Ghana, the oil-lead economic boom in Nigeria, and the treaty on the free movement of people in the community accelerate the tempo of undocumented migration in West Africa. Also, migration laws and regulations are not always rigorously enforced. Expulsion and deportation are common policy measures directed at illegal migrants resident in African countries. In Nigeria, the events leading to the expulsion of aliens were gradual, but in all cases, the actual expulsion--or decisions to expel--are usually sudden and dramatic.     

Preliminary analysis of emigration dynamics in Sub-Saharan Africa

Migration is so prominent in African history that several observers have concluded that it is a way of life for many Africans. Considerable migration has occurred historically throughout Africa in response to political, economic, religious and security situations, ethnic tensions, and demographic pressures. Patterns, directions, and motivations of migration have been severely affected by the colonial experience which, in turn, has influenced economic, sociocultural, political, and demographic development. Historical and political links between African and colonial countries initially facilitated migration toward the UK, France, Belgium, and later to the US, Canada, and Germany. Under a lengthy recession, however, these Western economies have severely restricted the flow of immigration. This paper discusses the data situation, the economic regime, the demographic regime, the political regime, the micro-macro context, the cultural regime, the ecological setting, political change and uncertainty in South Africa, the intra-African exchange of skilled manpower, and implementing the IOM/UNFPA project in sub-Saharan Africa.     

Europe’s Migration Agreements with Migrant‐Sending Countries in the Global South: A Critical Review

The past two decades have seen the steady emergence of various bilateral and multilateral migration agreements between Europe and migrant‐sending countries in the global South. This article provides a critical assessment of the way the EU – and individual countries such as Spain, France and Italy – have played active roles in reshaping old and developing new strategies for keeping migration under control while opening up new opportunities for “regular” migration. It also discusses the extent to which migration agreements help migrant‐sending countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America to optimize the link between migration and development. Based on an analysis of the contents of the migration agreements and their implementation, it has become obvious that there is still a long way to go to achieve “fair multilateralism” and create “win‐win” situations between the EU and the poorer migrant‐sending countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America.