Migration And Development In Africa

The Southern Africa Migration Project (SAPM) launches its new series on migration and development. Migration has been an integral aspect of the labour markets across much of Africa for at least the last century, cutting across class and skill boundaries. It represents an important livelihood strategy for poor households, but is also characteristic of the better off, including many African elites. Understanding is slowly emerging of the potentially positive role that migration can play in reducing poverty and ?mobilising? the African diaspora in development. This first title in this series provides an overview of the complex political, economic and human development issues at stake around the migration phenomenon in the twenty-first century. It gives valuable factual and statistical data to inform debates on this contentious political topic. This publication is the product of collaboration between the Southern African Migration Project and the Centre for Globalization, Poverty and Migration at Sussex University. Subsequent editions are planned on HIV/AIDS, health, the brain-drain, and food security in Africa.

This book provides a strong multidisciplinary examination of the links between migration, remittances and sustainable development in Africa. It makes evidence-based policy recommendations on migration to help achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. The key themes examined are migration and remittances, and their relations with the following issues: economic transformation, education and knowledge, corruption and conflict. Cross-cutting issues such as gender equality and youth are weaved throughout the chapters, and a rich range of country contexts are presented. The volume also discusses challenges in managing migration flows. It will be of interest to advanced students, academics and policy makers in development economics and sustainable development.

This book focuses on achieving a better understanding of the implications of international migration for national development from the perspective of the sending countries (with an emphasis on sub-Saharan Africa). More specifically, the purpose of this volume is to explore (1) current perceptions - as seen from the perspective of the countries of origin - of the links between international migration and national development, and (2) current trends in policy making aimed at minimising the negative effects, while optimising the development impact. What are the dominant views and policy initiatives in the different countries of sub-Saharan Africa? It is concerned with the question of how a coherent international migration policy can contribute to the fight against poverty. In the book, update information is given of migration-development nexus in various countries, including Senegal and Burkina Faso, Botswana and Mozambique, Nigeria and Kenya . Attention is additionally paid to Mexico, the Philippines and the People's Republic of China.

There are only a few studies that analyze the complex relationship between Migration and development in Africa. The book presents the main trends in African migration since the last two decades. It analyzes the major migration trends, the various migration hubs across the continent and the underlying factors explaining the changing nature of migration across the continent. A few of the chapters in the book examine the phenomenon of migration from a national perspective by focusing on migration trends in countries such as Ghana, Cameroon, Kenya, and Nigeria. Two chapters examine the migration links between Africa and Europe with one of them focusing on the political links between Ghana and the Netherlands while the other focuses on economic exchanges between the Cameroonian diaspora in Germany and selected groups and organizations in Cameroon. The uniqueness of this book lies in the varied disciplinary viewpoints used by the authors in explaining the phenomenon of migration and development in Africa. The authors are specialists in the fields of sociology, anthropology, geography, history, philosophy and migration studies. Examining migration from so many different perspectives enriches the analysis and brings in new insights that would otherwise have been missing with the use of a single disciplinary perspective. The book recommends the need for policy coordination by national governments of both origin and destination countries to manage the size and composition of migrants. Most migrant-receiving countries prefer to receive professionals and persons with the required skills and training while keeping out the bulk of untrained and lowly-skilled persons. The result of this is that most migrants leave their countries and enter their destination countries illegally, swelling the numbers of undocumented immigrants.

Many African migrants residing abroad nurture a hope to one day return, at least temporarily, to their home country. In the wake of economic crises in the developed world, alongside rapid economic growth in parts of Africa, the impetus to ‘return’ is likely to increase. Such returnees are often portrayed as agents of development, bringing with them capital, knowledge and skills as well as connections and experience gained abroad. Yet, the reality is altogether more complex. In this much-needed volume, based on extensive original fieldwork, the authors reveal that there is all too often a gaping divide between abstract policy assumptions and migrants’ actual practices. In contrast to the prevailing optimism of policies on migration and development, Africa’s Return Migrants demonstrates that the capital obtained abroad is not always advantageous and that it can even hamper successful entrepreneurship and other forms of economic, political and social engagement.

The diaspora of developing countries can be a potent force for development, through remittances, but more importantly, through promotion of trade, investment, knowledge and technology transfers. The book aims to consolidate research and evidence on these issues with a view to formulating policies in both sending and receiving countries.

Includes statistical tables.

Klaus F. Zimmermann Migration has become a topic of substantial interest in Europe in recent years. Part of this interest is driven by the important political changes in East Europe and the potential threat of large East-West migration waves. However, due to the large differences in economic development a substantial migration pressure is also expected from the South of Europe as of other parts of the world. The global migration potential towards the higher developed areas has reached about 80 to 100 million people. Thereof, about 60 million would like to move permanently, 20 million temporarily and about 15 million are refugees and asylum seekers and approximately 30 million are iIIegals. The book consists of eight papers which are allocated to five parts: Theoretical Models (Part I), Performance of Migrants (Part 11), Migration Within Developing Countries (Part IV) and Immigration Policy (Part V)' Each paper begins with a brief summary of its content. Part I, Theoretical Models, contains first "A Microeconomic Zlmm.r-mann VI Model of Migration" by Siegfried Berninghaus and Hans-GUnther Seifert-Vogt. They study migration decision making under incomplete information and apply it to empirically relevant phenomena. The second paper by Gerhard Schmitt-Rink "Migration and International Factor Price Equalization" demonstrates that international migration tends to equalize national factor prices and factor shares even in the absence of international trade. In Part II, Performance of Migrants, Lucie Merkle and Klaus F.