Expanding Boundaries Laine, Jussi P; Moyo, Inocent; Changwe Nshimbi, Christopher
2021, 20201227, 2020, 2020-12-28, Volume:
1
eBook
This book challenges the common European notions about African migration to Europe and offers a holistic understanding of the current situation in Africa. It advocates a need to rethink Africa-Europe ...relations and view migration and borders as a resource rather than as sources of a crisis.
Migrant movement from Africa is often misunderstood and misrepresented as invasion caused by displacement due to poverty, violent conflict, and environmental stress. To control this movement and preserve national identities, the EU and its various member states resort to closing borders as a way of reinforcing their migration policies. This book aims to dismantle this stereotypical view of migration from Africa by sharing cutting-edge research from the leading scholars in Africa and Europe. It refutes the flawed narratives that position Africa as a threat to European societies, their economies, and security, and encourages a nuanced understanding of the root causes as well as the socioeconomic factors that guide the migrants’ decision-making. With chapters written in a concise style, this book brings together the migration and border studies in an innovative way to delve into the broader societal impacts of both. It also serves to de-silence the African voices in order to offer fresh insights on African migration – a discourse dominated hitherto by the European perspective.
This book constitutes a valuable resource for research scholars and students of Border Studies, Migration Studies, Conflict and Security Studies, and Development Studies seeking specialisation in these areas. Written in an accessible style, it will also appeal to a more general public interested in gaining a fuller perspective on the African reality.
Industrialisation is vital for developing countries' quest for sustainable growth, development, and transformation. This article examines the SADC region's stated objective of industrialisation and ...regional integration as an approach towards achieving industrialisation. This is done through an analysis of manufacturing activities as a measure of industrialisation, in relation to regional integration to determine the significance of manufacturing to the development of member states of the SADC. It examines the increase or decrease in the region's manufacturing sector and its significance to economic growth for the period 2000-2015. The article is not concerned with SADC's advancement visa-vis the stated sequential integration milestones. Instead, it focuses on claims that manufacturing is significant for integration and a significant contributor to economic growth. It also uses a mixed-methods design based on secondary sources and an examination of qualitative and quantitative data in an attempt to understand the transformative impact of regional integration on industrialisation. The latter has been consistently noted as the key driver of sustainable growth, development, and transformation, even more so for developing countries. Forward and backward linkages in the manufacturing sector and economies of scale give it a slight edge over other sectors insofar as contributions to development are concerned. This article argues that contrary to the expectation that regional integration in the SADC would lead to industrialisation, the economies in the region have rather experienced deindustrialisation.
This article argues that neither borders nor the ways in which migrants see them constitute significant deterrents to the migrants’ resolve to migrate. The argument is based on an investigation of ...migrants en route to Europe from the Horn of Africa and the ways in which they see EU external borders and how that contributes to the decision to migrate. The article advances critiques of rational choice models of migrant decision-making that are based mainly on economic factors and contributes to theoretical explanations of why some people in the Horn of Africa migrate irregularly, despite measures enforced by state authorities to curb their movement. The article draws on a qualitative thematic analysis of personal face-to-face interviews conducted with migrants from four countries in the Horn of Africa who were in Ethiopia at the time of the research. In the interviews, there was sufficient evidence that migrants had realistic perceptions of European borders and that life in Europe might not be rosy. But this did not dampen the resolve to migrate. Solutions other than those that inhibit movement but understand, are sensitive to and include the perceptions of migrants are more likely to effectively address challenges associated with irregular migration.
Southern Africa has a long and complex history of migration. This article argues that overall, the mechanisms for governing migration and the practice of migration in the region ignore prevailing ...theoretical and ideological influences. Instead, Southern Africa operates on an age-long labour migration governance system predicated on private capital. The article qualitatively analyses scholarly literature, migration policy and legislation, and data from interviews with relevant stakeholders. Southern Africa could benefit more from favourably governing migration at the regional rather than the national level. This is consistent with the African Union's preferred approach to integrating Africa. Also, sociocultural traits in borderland communities of neighbouring Southern African countries tend to be shared and traverse state borders.
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BFBNIB, DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, ODKLJ, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
This paper engages in a normative analysis of water security, in view of the sustainable development goals (SDGs) and the call for transformation. It examines the role of river basin organizations ...(RBOs) and integrated water resources management (IWRM) to water governance, and the extent to which they are consistent with water security for development in Southern Africa. The paper uses Policy Coherence for Development (PCD) and addresses essential questions regarding the extent to which RBOs in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) insofar as concerns SDG 6 achieve water security for people at the grassroots. The theoretical contribution of the paper includes the comparative examination of normative PCD and water security structures at RBO level in Southern Africa, and the extent to which RBOs reflect IWRM principles. Empirically, the paper highlights regional water policies regarding harmonization and coordination in the respective riparian states of and the RBOs, in line with the SADC's developmental objectives. As RBOs seem to prefer conserving, developing and utilizing water resources over people, they would do well to shift their focus on to people by adopting normative PCD, if they are to witness transformation. This would also be consistent with regional goals, which seek to bring the transformation agenda to the ground.
•The SDGs suggest that development should be realized through “transformation”.•Theoretically, normative PCD and water security are compared, and how far they reflect IWRM principles.•Empirically, harmonization and coordination of water policies of riparian states in basin organizations are highlighted.•SADC's commitment to IWRM integrates core values essential for transformation in some of its key policy documents.•The core values have not been translated into SADC river basins' water resources management strategies.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
This paper examines the activities of informal cross-border traders (ICBTs) in the contiguous borderlands of Zambia, Malawi and Mozambique, in order to determine the replicability and feasibility of ...the growth triangle phenomenon, which was imported as a concept for economic development from Southeast Asia. It also seeks to establish whether ICBTs can satisfy their economic needs from cross-border trade. Apart from the thorough review of relevant literature, participant observations, face-to-face interviews and focus group discussions were deployed to collect the data for the analysis contained in the paper. Primary data from the fieldwork conducted at various locations in the borderlands is qualitatively and statistically analyzed. ICBTs in these areas include affiliates of traders' associations and non-affiliates. The contiguous borderlands of the three countries comprise a young population of ICBTs with low incomes who have spent relatively few years in cross-border trade. ICBTs who have been longer in the informal trade business have graduated into formal traders. ICBT activities highlight their contribution to regional integration, from the bottom up. Informal cross-border trade provides employment and livelihoods, placing ICBTs outside extremely poor populations living below USD$1.25 per day. ICBTs also have innovative informal ways of accessing credit based on personal interactions and shared experiences with suppliers of goods. Legally establishing the growth triangle creates an environment that ICBTs exploit in order to satisfy their economic needs, especially with government facilitation.
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This paper examines the cross-border sociocultural and economic activities of the inhabitants of the contiguous border areas of Zambia, Malawi, and Mozambique (ZMM), in order to compare perceptions ...towards each of these practices by various actors including informal cross-border traders (ICBTs), ordinary inhabitants of the borderland communities of these countries, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and state and local authorities, among others. The specific sociocultural practices in question include the accessing of social services, fulfillment of sociocultural needs/obligations, and the economic activities, informal cross-border trade. Legislations, policy reports and scientific publications are thoroughly reviewed and interviews with key policymakers, ICBTs, and locals are conducted. Qualitative and quantitative analysis of data collected from the interviews is also performed. Various actors generally regard accessing social services (such as education and health) across borders by nationals of neighboring countries as normal and "acceptable" practices while some forms of informal cross-border trade are regarded "unacceptable." However, both sociocultural and economic actors engage in cross-border activities out of necessity, convenience, for survival, and as practices which they, being inhabitants of the borderlands, have traditionally followed. Representatives of state and local governments in the adjacent provinces of the contiguous borderlands should form transboundary coordinating committees through which to establish sustainable and effective burden-sharing and service provision systems, to meet the socioeconomic needs of borderland inhabitants.
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This paper surveys frameworks of labour migration in southern Africa and determines South Africa's policy responses to inflows of migrants from seven neighbouring countries. Legislations, policy ...reports and scientific publications on migration were thoroughly reviewed and interviews and correspondence with key policymakers were conducted. Statistical analyses of data on foreign worker recruitments and permits issued by South Africa's Department of Home Affairs were also performed. The absence of a migration protocol in southern Africa suggests SADC Members have not implemented the African Union's migration policy basic guidelines. Two systems coexist in southern Africa that complicate migration governance: a South Africa‐managed bilateral migration policy, and aspirations for a formal SADC‐managed migration policy. Bilateral agreements between South Africa and neighbours have established a labour migration system that dims prospects for a regional migration policy. SACU Members could establish a two‐tier policy to achieve free movement while maintaining managed migration policy outside SACU. An official multilateral migration governance mechanism would serve SADC better than the current ad‐hoc measures.
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DOBA, FZAB, GIS, IJS, IZUM, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBMB, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
South Africa attracts migrants from other parts of Africa, Asia, Europe, Australia and the Americas. However, the immigration debate within the country apparently revolves around immigrants from the ...other parts of Africa, including the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region, and projects them as undesirable in a way best interpreted as discriminatory and exclusionary. This paper argues that this, coupled with South Africa's immigration legislation, policies and practices amounts to forms of bordering and exclusion that starkly contradict the country and its neighbor's aspirations for a regionally integrated Southern Africa. As one of the few SADC member states that have ratified the 2005 Draft Protocol on the Facilitation of Movement of Persons in the SADC, immigrants and cross-border movers from the SADC region ought to be treated well in South Africa. Not doing so militates against the goal of an integrated Southern Africa and the commitments South Africa has made to the continental agenda of establishing an African Economic Community.
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