Paper short abstract:

The presentation provides insight on the profiles, motivations, services given by smugglers in Mali and Niger and the networks in which they operate. The research takes into account local social and economic dynamics related to movement, trade and connectivity in the region.

Paper long abstract:

What do we know about smuggling in Mali and Niger: empirical data collected by 4Mi.

Every day in West Africa thousands of people move intra- and inter-regionally. The movement of people within ECOWAS (Economic Community of West African States) is regulated by the Protocol relating to free movement of persons, residence and establishment. Nonetheless, people on the move often prefer to organize their travel through smugglers who facilitate their movement.

This MMC presentation based on the Briefing Paper provides insight on the profiles, motivations, services given by smugglers in Mali and Niger and the networks in which they operate. The research explores the services smugglers provide to refugees and migrants prior to their arrival in major transit hubs such as Agadez and Gao. It also discusses protection incidents involving smugglers, as reported by refugees and migrants surveyed by the 4Mi. The research takes into account local social and economic dynamics related to movement, trade and connectivity in the region. We propose to critically discuss what such polysemic terms as 'smuggler' might mean adopting and external or internal position of observation.

The research is based on the data collected by the Mixed Migration Monitoring Mechanism Initiative (4Mi) between 1 August 2017 and 1 August 2018 with migrants and smugglers. In total, 153 smugglers and 3404 migrants were interviewed in major transit hubs.

Paper short abstract:

To decolonize research on African mobilities, empirical cases challenge analytical categories & assumptions informing British asylum decision-making as represented in the 2016 Country Information and Guidance on "female genital mutilation" & "sexual orientation and gender identity" in Ghana.

Paper long abstract:

Every month the United Kingdom deports Ghanaians. Some UK-based Ghanaians attempt to forestall removal via refugee claims. The UK Home Office (UKHO) views Ghana as "a free, open and democratic society," where "civil liberties" are "protected" (UKHO 2016). Informed by this belief, the UKHO rejects refugee petitions. Over the past decades, however, the narratives of asylum claimants have broadened and diversified to encompass social, economic, and cultural persecution, such as forms of gender-based violence, witchcraft, and human trafficking. These claims invoke the state as party or ancillary to persecution, and as a consequence, scholars have shifted attention to decision-making processes, such as establishing the veracity of a claim (Good 2007) or the credibility (Kagan 2003) of claimants.

In response to "protean" claims (Lawrance et al 2015), the UKHO conducts research and publishes reports to guide first-instance decision-makers. This paper presents empirical cases to challenge the analytical categories and assumptions informing British asylum decision-making as represented in the 2016 Country Information and Guidance on "female genital mutilation" and "sexual orientation and gender identity". I compare the prosecution and persecution narratives of four individuals with the UKHO country guidance narration of the predicament of "particular social group" members. I explore intersections in personal and governmental narratives and provide an account of the disjunctures. I consider the type of evidence the UKHO furnishes and compare it with individual experiences to demonstrate the incommensurability of generalized guidance for social and cultural forms of persecution as a means of decolonizing research on African mobilities.

Paper short abstract:

The paper investigates different discourses on migration in Ethiopia and the Amharic concept of siddet central for the migration talk in the country. Siddet frames labour migration as a forced movement, but at the same time might be a viable alternative to the international discourses on migration

Paper long abstract:

In the last two decades labour migration to the Gulf has become essential life strategy for many Ethiopian families. Alongside with demographic event of migration the discourses on it have developed. Many NGO reports and academic researches are focused around the idea of trafficking, which depicts smugglers as one of the major course of irregular migration. This view has disseminated into the official Ethiopian discourse on migration which in spite of huge remittances is reluctant to include labour migrants into the development narrative. The government has invested into educational programs to teach people in communities about the harms of migration basically imposing a particular way to see migrants and smugglers. In Ethiopian talk on migration the term 'siddet' covers both voluntary and forced movement which creates an ambiguous situation. However, as many researches have shown the the notion of forced/voluntary mobility is questionable itself. The term 'siddet' has disseminated into Amharic literature and songs which became widely popular both in diaspora and among people in Ethiopia. Based on examples from the literature, I argue that 'siddet' has offered a new way of seeing Ethiopian identity in globalized world. Being blind to economic migrant/refugee dichotomy it creates unique solidarity and sense of unity both inside and outside the country.

Paper short abstract:

This paper explores skepticism to migration research encountered during fieldwork, bringing it to the center of analysis in order to explore what it highlights in terms of methodological approaches and epistemological frameworks to be decolonized within Africanist migration research.

Paper long abstract:

As a Spanish academic conducting research on Senegalese migration to Spain/Europe, I have at times encountered skepticism to my presence and purpose among the people I wished to study - prospective migrants and relatives of migrants in Senegal, or migrants themselves (some of them without residence permits) in Spain. Who was sending me to do this work? Who would benefit from my research? Was I some kind of police informer? As a beginner researcher, I was both eager to gain my interlocutors' trust and to be transparent about my motives and objectives. I saw this skepticism as an obstacle to be overcome and a healthy reminder of the need to fully explain the mechanisms - including funding - underlying my research. It was after all not surprising that my curiosity would seem uncomfortable in a context where people sought out strategies to circumvent the closure of the Europe-Africa borderlands. Although some of my interlocutors at times referred to slavery, colonialism and postcolonial conditions in discussions about current migration dynamics, I did not center my analysis on those. In this paper, I wish to redress this gap by redirecting the analysis to the aforementioned skepticism itself. I explore what it highlights about the research endeavour itself - including the interaction between researcher and "researched" - in the context of wider colonial and postcolonial relationships and experiences of exploitation, and reflect on what such skepticism may teach us about the possibilities for researching migration in ways that avoid reproducing longstanding inequalities.

Paper short abstract:

This paper examines how South-South-migration has shaped notions of belonging of refugees living in extended exile. It challenges common assumptions on the periphery-centre-nexus, postcolonial notions of belonging and (im-)mobilities of refugees living in camps.

Paper long abstract:

In the public and the media, African postcolonial migration has mostly been represented as South-North-migration. Pictures of African migrants trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea, strengthen this perception. Moreover, African migration in postcolonial contexts is mostly perceived as movements of people from the formerly colonized peripheries to the colonial centres. Drawing on the case of the Saharawi refugee camps in Algeria, this paper takes a critical approach to these assumptions. The camps are one of the most protracted refugee situations worldwide, resulting from the still outstanding decolonization of Western Sahara and ongoing colonial occupation of the territory by Morocco. Mobility and manifold, circular and multi-spatial migration, both in and out of the camps, have become a common feature in the everyday life of Saharawi refugees. Whereas some people and families have left the camps permanently, many others leave only to return or keep on returning. In this paper, I follow the migratory trajectories of one special group of these Saharawi "refugee-migrants" {Fiddian-Qasmiyeh 2011 #203}, the Cubarawis - a term that refers to Saharawi refugees who studied and lived in Cuba and then returned to the camps, often after a long period. Exposing their notions of belonging to different places over time, I argue that South-South-Migration, rather than migration to the North, has led to new hybrid feelings of belonging. Thus, I challenge common assumptions on the colony-metropole-nexus, postcolonial notions of belonging and (im-)mobilities of refugees living in camps.

Paper short abstract:

This paper traces how anti-migration narratives among international students in three different African countries transform through online interaction with students from other countries.

Paper long abstract:

There is a flurry of research on all forms of migration to and from all corners of the world in this 'age of migration' (Miller and Castells, 1993). With the recurring narrative of Europe being flooded by migrants from Africa, an 'industry' of media, policy and academic activity has emerged around these movements (Schapendonk, 2018; Andersson 2014). There is no doubt that many Africans desire to migrate to other countries, but the disproportionate emphasis on intercontinental migration conceals the diversity of attitudes towards migration in the continent. This paper examines people who proactively avoid migration. More specifically, I consider Zimbabwean, Namibian and Nigerian students' reasoning for pursuing international distance education through the University of South Africa (UNISA). The data was collected through a mixed methods approach based on a survey of 1,295 students and 125 phone interviews with students in different African countries for the IDEAS research project (ideaspartnership.org), which have provided insights into the demographics of who the students are, but also their diverse reasons for choosing this distinct form of higher education and their experiences of it. The paper identifies anti-migration narratives among some of the students in these three countries, and simultaneously traces how such ideas can transform through online encounters with students from South Africa and other countries. Consequently, this paper argues that for some students, aspirations for migration within the continent emerge through 'international experiences' in situ, which challenge prevailing assumptions regarding African desires for Europe-bound migration.

Paper short abstract:

Conviviality is an attempt to conceptualise the complexity of my West African interlocutors' local and diasporic tactics and views of living with difference. Inspired by them, I start from a decentred set of premises to challenge hegemonic politics of difference in the context of global migration.

Paper long abstract:

Around the globe, people have divergent tactics and views of engaging with existing difference in their societies and its further differentiation. If spatially mobile, people draw from experiences with multiple and differing configurations of the places they lived in and passed through. Based on ethnographic fieldwork since 2009, I propose conviviality as an attempt to conceptualise the complexity of my Casamançais/Senegalese interlocutors' local and diasporic tactics and views of living with difference. I take recurrent examples of simple everyday encounters such as greeting and dwelling in urban spaces into account to disentangle their various levels of reflection, habitual expectations and tactical action. I do not pretend to represent their knowledge, but I discuss the inspirations I received from trying to understand what they shared with me non/verbally regarding living with difference. Both their and my reflections are situated within the wider historical and contemporary frameworks of global entanglements and unequal knowledge exchanges. However, my attempt to start from, if not a different, at least a decentred set of premises challenges established Western/Northern politics of difference. Casamançais in Senegal and Spain had local to global references at their disposal, drawing from both hegemonic discourses and their personal experiences gathered throughout their im/mobile lives. Such a perspective on urban everyday sociality shows a distinct way of engaging multiple and overlapping ways of differentiating and homogenising practices. My argument ultimately raises awareness for the importance and feasibility of minimal socialities in diasporic configurations, transnational migrations and the respective local urban contexts.

Paper short abstract:

Since 2015, the EU externalization of borders in Sahel countries connects migration, development and security. This containment policy has changed the trans-Saharan mobility and transformed the region as another outpost of Fortress Europe, beyond the Mediterranean Sea and the Southern Border.

Paper long abstract:

The Sahara desert served as a moving space in the last centuries, as an important territory of exchange values, ideas and products. Since 2015, the European Union (EU) is obsessed to stem migration flows getting to Europe with an externalization of borders in different Sahel countries as Niger, Mali or Burkina Faso. With a dangerous link between migration, development and security, these vulnerable states became the new outpost of Fortress Europe, beyond the Mediterranean Sea and the Southern border in Ceuta and Melilla. They took the old Kaddafi's role controlling irregular migration and criminalising the movement across the desert for financial assistance exchange.

This paper focuses on the consequences of this conditionality of international cooperation, especially through EU emergency Trust Fund, and analyses the impact of this restrictive migration policy for the populations of the zone -Tuareg, Tubu, Sonray-Zarma or Hausa, among others-. We highlight the importance of Sahara mobility and we analyse the effects of the externalization of border for circular and historical movements within the region that means the clandestinization of routes, the accentuation of migrant's vulnerability or the expansion of human trafficking. Going further Eurocentric approaches and discourses dedicated to migration flows to the Old Continent, we place the peoples of Sahel zone at the centre of our research putting their initiatives, potential and capacities in our focus and placing the Sahara desert at the forefront of migration field, giving it the relevance deserved as the biggest outdoor cemetery of the world.