African Human Mobility Review

Editorial

Mulugeta Dinbabo — 2024-05-07

The Palgrave Handbook of South–South Migration and Inequality

Daniel Tevera — 2024-05-07

Migration and the Constant Search for Self-Improvement in Africa

Leander Kandilige — 2024-05-07

Globally, narratives about the nexus between migration and development have gained prominence among academics, policymakers, development practitioners, as well as social partners. However, the historical and contextual factors that have shaped the patterns of migration flows within and from the African continent have been poorly conceptualized and theorized. The components of migration that have the propensity to lead to self-improvement and development such as the sending of cash, social, and political remittances; skills and knowledge transfers; and diaspora-origin country engagements, need to be examined as a composite in order to fully appreciate the developmental potential of migration within the African context. Using thematic and content analysis of relevant extant literature, we examine the contextual factors that characterize the nexus between migration and self-improvement/development in Africa. Our analyses are situated within an Africa-centered conceptualization of development and migration. We argue that the development impacts of migration vary across different regions in Africa depending on the contextual factors that shape such migrations. Migration spurs self-improvement and development just as self-improvement and development facilitate migration.

Editorial

Mulugeta F. Dinbabo — 2023-12-14

Migration in West Africa

Daniel Tevera — 2023-12-14

Spaces, Places, and Migration: Understanding and Strengthening Public Health-Care Provision in South Africa

Tackson Makandwa — 2024-05-07

Given South Africa’s historical and contemporary realities of both internal mobility and migration from other countries, this paper argues that engaging with space, place, and migration is pivotal to understanding and strengthening public health-care provision in South Africa. This paper views place as emerging from and relating to space. A mutually reinforcing and reciprocal relationship between people and place over time shapes health-care delivery and health outcomes in South Africa. Therefore, this paper argues that engaging with a place-based approach is required to understand the local context in which diverse groups are situated. There is, however, a lacuna in studies situating South(ern) African public health-care challenges within such a place-based approach. This paper presents findings from a mixed-methods study that was designed to fill this gap. The research team conducted fieldwork in six health-care facilities across two provinces in South Africa – four in Gauteng and two in the Vhembe district of Limpopo province – representing urban, peri-urban, and rural settings. The study included exploratory in-depth interviews with 77 health-care providers (including nursing and administrative staff), a survey conducted with 229 health-care users, and site visits. The findings show how diverse spaces shape and are shaped by different migrant profiles, producing diverse places, which in turn present particular demands to the public-health system. It is crucial to understand the pathways, behaviors, and meanings associated with such mobility if we are to strengthen the provision of health-care services in South Africa.

Compatible Compacts? The “Social Life” of Vulnerability, Migration Governance, and Protection at the Zimbabwe–South Africa Border

Kudakwashe Vanyoro — 2024-05-07

The central argument of this paper is that interventions of humanitarian organizations at the Zimbabwe–South Africa border reveal the importance placed on making very clear distinctions between those needing protection and those who do not. This is the case even in times wherein migrants have other protection needs that fall outside these boundaries or intersect with those of others. These boundaries are retained in the stable definitions of migrant in/vulnerability that have been legitimized by the increased emphasis of two separate frameworks: one, the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly, and Regular Migration (GCM) for managing migration and the other, the Global Compact on Refugees (GCR) that determines a set of stable norms for international refugee protection. These mandates are also connected to other tidy, established identities of vulnerability that pertain to gender, health, legal standing, and persecution. In contexts marked by conflicting and overlapping experiences for persons on the move, and mixed migration flows, these ideas are unstable as a way of governing migration. This is because they can also reproduce and intensify social divisions that may lead to inconsistencies and unethical practices in international protection and migration governance for irregular migrants, as well as failures to respond to “the ‘social life’ of vulnerability.” We propose this novel concept in the paper to capture and reimagine the limits and possibilities for protection.

Migrations Between Africa and China: A Decentered Approach

Oreva Olakpe — 2023-08-18

“Let Them Stay There”: COVID-19 and Zimbabwe’s Indignation Against Return Migrants and Travelers

Chipo Hungwe — 2024-05-07

This paper explains the indignation against and stigmatization of return migrants and travelers when Zimbabwe first recorded cases of COVID-19 in 2020. While xenophobic hatred toward foreign migrants enjoyed much media and scholarly attention, the similar risk faced by the return migrants and travelers among “their own” during the pandemic was largely left on the back burner. The paper uses secondary analysis of information from social media, government reports, media briefings, and public utterances of government officials to provide an explanation for the negative attitudes of locals against migrants at the height of COVID-19. The findings revealed that in times of change and dealing with uncertainty, there is a tendency to redraw boundary lines between in-groups and out-groups with negative consequences for those labeled as the out-group. For some time, the returnees were stigmatized as harbingers of the COVID-19 virus and viewed as troublesome and acting in an unreasonable manner, thus courting the indignation of local Zimbabweans. This paper lends support to the view that pandemics create fear, which results in the rejection and exclusion of ordinary members of the in-group. Perceived resource competition, resource scarcity, anxiety, and fear heightened the stigmatization of return migrants and travelers. To build back better from the negative effects of the pandemic, there is a need to review COVID-19 preventive measures, avoid reckless public pronouncements that stigmatize and stoke hatred for return migrants, and invest in the healthcare system.

Higher Education Policy and Access for South Sudanese from Bidi Bidi, Uganda

Christine Semambo Sempebwa — 2023-12-14

Globally, refugee-hosting states are required to have a higher education (HE) policy that incorporates refugees, in order to raise refugees’ HE access to 15% by 2030. This paper explores the influence of HE policy formulation and implementation on refugee access and resilience among South Sudanese from the Bidi Bidi settlement in Uganda. The study adopted a qualitative approach, an exploratory case study design, and an advocacy world view. The researcher collected data from 27 participants– 12 undergraduates from two private Ugandan universities, 13 government and non-governmental organization (NGO) officials, two officials from public and private universities – all involved in refugee education. Additionally, the researcher obtained data through a literature review, in-depth interviews with key informants and students, and a focus group discussion. The findings reveal that in principle, HE policy formulation in Uganda is incorporated in the development of the Education Response Plan (ERP) for refugees and host communities, through a multi-stakeholder approach. However, neither students nor higher education institutions (HEIs) were part of the ERP formulation process. The HE policy formulation process in Uganda traverses a value chain with intersecting complexities. These include: supra-state and national policy, refugee demographics, preferences for basic education and emergency interventions, negative perceptions of HE returns, hostility and refugee exclusion, and students’ personal challenges. Relatedly, support for refugees is largely provided by HEIs and NGOs, using silo, independent guidelines. Ultimately, the findings indicate that the HE policy formulation and implementation do not address the intersecting complexities adequately, with implications for student access and resilience. This study identifies areas that could inform HE policy formulation and implementation, and enhance refugee access and resilience, especially in light of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees’ (UNHCR) 15by30 Roadmap.