LIST OF PANELS

GENERAL OBJECTIVES

The main objective is to be migrant-centric and focused on Africa and Africans in the process and development of migration policies and frameworks. The panel aims to explore the migration policy analysis and development process through coalition building, consensus rallying, enquiry and collaboration, to make visible the vibrant state of migration public policy making process. 

RESEARCH QUESTIONS

· Why is the application of migration management frameworks asymmetrical vis-a-vis the experiences of African migrants?

· How can migration management policies and frameworks be transformed to become more migrant-centric and humanistic in its development and implementation process? 

SCIENTIFIC RELEVANCE

In this Contemporary era of unparalleled and unprecedented scale of economic globalization, this panel will contribute to an informed public debate around issues of African Migration Policy and the resultant effects on development policy, welfare policy and economic policy. It will create a deep voice to open new and fresh scholarly frontiers on the future of migration management in Africa. It will also establish a much-needed interdisciplinary dialogue between migration studies, public policy, sociology and anthropology. We foresee that this will foster interdisciplinarity, transdisciplinarity and academic exchange beyond conventional formats and provide new theoretical avenues for tackling similar other key global issues. 

DESCRIPTION OF THE PANEL

Migration remains a global phenomenon that cannot be thwarted. The subject of Global Migration (which is a movement from a place or point of origin to another destination within countries and across continents) in recent times has received such global scholarly and policy attention which could be deemed a foreign policy issue of international, humanitarian and social-political concern (Caponio & Borkert, 2010:10).

Historically, intra-migration across borders within each continent of the world has been on for centuries, and inter-migration across continents has been on for as long as human history exists, (Suryadinata, 2011:16; Okunade, 2019:1). Hershkovitz, et al (2018: 456-459) gives paleoanthropological evidence in genetic studies of human dentition remains, using the Levallois Stone Technique in Misliya Cave, Israel that humans left Africa as far back as 196,000 years ago for ecological, biological, economic, cultural, political, sociological, and psychological reasons, as well as for colonial purposes or by slavery. (Campbell & Crawford 2012:1-8, Du Plessis and Hyslop 2015:13, 42-43).

There have been recent attempts to manage migration both at the global and continental levels. The most recent Global attempt being the Global Compact on Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (GCM) after the New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants in 2016[1]. In Europe, the European Union (EU) border externalization regime called the Hotspot approach aimed at identifying, screening and assisting migrants was created in May 2015[2] in conjunction with the Maghreb countries connected with the Mediterranean route to the EU  such as Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco.[3] In the aftermaths of the United States 911 attacks in September 2001, the management of migration and the borders became more securitized and militarized  by the Homeland Security, Immigration Control and Enforcement (ICE) as datafied migrants are generally viewed as nuisance and societal problems, whose management require smart, digitalized, complex surveillance architectures and real-time tracking repository, (Bourbeau, 2011:106,128-129). Currently, in the present administration of President Donald Trump of the United States, closed border system has been encouraged, above open border system and immigration policy has been more stiffened thereby making visa issuance and entering into the United States very difficult for migrants from various part of the globe (Alamillo et al, 2019:6-8). In recent times, the African Union Migration Policy and Development Framework was adopted in July 2006 and revised in 2018 for a plan of action till 2030, to address issues of migration governance, labour migration and education, diaspora engagement, border governance, irregular migration, forced displacement, internal migration and migration and trade[4].

However, In the treatment and experiences of African migrants at the border hotspots in Europe, the Persian/ Arabian Gulf and North America, in the operation of the GCM or any other continental migration arrangements, the arrangements between Africa and these Western arrival destinations where these migrants move to, seems to be asymmetrical and unequal. Asymmetrical in the divergent, uncomplimentary sense that the receiving country’s viewpoint of migration is securitization and display behaviors suggesting that they do not need the migrants like the migrant needs them, while the viewpoint of the migrant is that of uncertainty and flexibility. (Düvell et al, 2014:29, Cuttitta, 2018:644-645). The migrants from Africa seem to be on the receiving end of the Western and Northern migration policies[5], and these policies rather restricts movements, and are focused on intensive securitization and protectionism (Phakathi 2019:26, 2020:90), rather than managing migration, ”the receiving country bias”, (Haas et al 2015:16).

There are scattered evidences of dangerous and fatal journeys undertaken by resilient African migrants on shanty traditional boats through the Mediterranean, resulting in critical dehydration, severe hypothermic reactions, on-sea deaths by accidents, starvation along with inhumane land border conditions like detention unit facilities and deaths at these facilities (Bourbeau, 2011:11,Ikuteyijo and McLean, 2020:53-58; Okunade, forthcoming), Involuntary Deportations, Child Separations, Civil and Human Right violations (Düvell et al, 2014:21-22,24, Kane and Leedy, 2013:5-6, 60-72)

This panel therefore proposes to take a major step in African migration scholarship to create an ethical and science voice of African migration processes which makes migration more fair, orderly, predictable, and explainable. The panel will begin a point of departure in African migration thoughts and thereby creating a long-term focused migration policy framework suitable for Africa, using a composite framework that incorporates an appropriate and selective mix of regulating, enhancing or controlling migration[6]. This point of departure for this panel would be to critically examine the existing migration policy framework at the sub-regional and continental levels in Africa and ways in which they can be improved upon for an effective implementation process that would yield the desired result.

This panel will expect interdisciplinary papers that focus on scholarly discussions, research, debates, narratives and commentaries that focus on the different ramifications of migration management, their policies and frameworks especially from the focus of the migrant and the sending countries within Africa.

[1] https://www.un.org/en/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=A/RES/73/195
[2] https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:32016R1624&from=EN
[3] https://www.theafricancourier.de/migration/north-african-countries-agrees-eu-mediterranean-migrants/
[4] https://au.int/sites/default/files/documents/35956-doc-au-mpfa-executive-summary-eng.pdf
[5] https://www.foreignpolicyjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/150519-Mediterranean-Migration-Crisis-Timothy-G-Hammond.pdf

[6] https://www.accord.org.za/conflict-trends/the-migrant-crisis-in-libya-and-the-nigeria-experience/