Jo Oucho

Contra Free Movement: South Africa and the SADC Migration Protocols

This paper examines the formidable obstacles to the development of a regionally harmonized approach to migration management in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region. Tracing the origins and development of SADC initiatives on regional cooperation on population movement, the paper shows how the far-reaching 1995 SADC Draft Protocol on Free Movement was killed off by South Africa. An examination of South Africas response and counterproposals reveal the myth and paranoia that characterize thinking on crossborder migration within the country. The SADC initiative to develop a Migration Protocol, akin to those on education and training and regional trade, finally ran aground in Mauritius in September 1998. This paper shows why it has been so difficult to develop a regional protocol on population movement and speculates on the likelihood of such a development in the future.

Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons: Africa‟s Liability for the Next Millennium

At the turn of the twenty-first century Africa is ushering into the millennium the problem of forced migration, which remains a liability in the continent’s development. From Algeria to Namibia, Sierra Leone to the Horn of Africa and the Comoro Islands, the number of refugees and internally displaced person (IDPs) has been mounting with no end in sight. In this seemingly endless process, some African states have remained producers (senders) and others recipients of refugees while at the same time toying with the ever expanding waves of IDPs, whose problem affects virtually all states in the region. While the very international nature of refugees has pitched its concern at the international level, including the involvement of the United Nations as well as international non-governmental organisations (NGOs), the national scale of internally displaced persons has localised concerns, with state intervention often partisan. Yet, IDPs and refugees constitute a continuum as most of the former graduate into the latter and as the two conditions interchange from time to time.

Introduction: The South–South Migration and Development Nexus

While the international debates on migration and development have been in fashion over the past 15 years, the nexus tends to focus on South–North movements of migrants. This chapter, first and foremost, highlights that migration among developing countries and in particular intraregional migration are at least as important if not more significant than South–North flows. Existing evidence on the scope and size of South–South movements is discussed. Secondly, key emerging trends and regional hubs are presented. Thirdly, commonalities and key differences between South–South and South–North migration are analysed, without aiming to make generalizations. Reasons for the focus on South–South migration are explained, including donors that have influenced the agenda.

Labor Mobility, Regional Integration and Social Protection in Southern Economies

Labor mobility is at the core of regional integration and social protection of workers in different RECs. In sub-Saharan Africa, for instance, most countries belong to more than one REC–ECOWAS in Western Africa, the East African Community (EAC) in East Africa, Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) in East and Southern Africa, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) in East Africa and the Horn of Africa, and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) in Southern Africa. Each has made different progress towards regional integration but in all these RECs, labor mobility is supposed to take place in the context of the “free or facilitated movement” framework. Within this framework, there are essentially similar and successive phases, namely movement, residence and establishment.

Employment and Migration Perspectives in Africa

A clear dichotonomy exists between urban and rural areas, but literature shows that links between these areas are an important feature in developing countries. Any index of the application of development points to the hackneyed fact that, whereas urban areas remain centers of employment opportunities, rural areas are still suffering from migrations to the cities. The synergy between these two areas sustains urban-rural linkages. In the urbanizing world (UNCHS, 1996) in which economic reforms, changes in governance and a vibrant civil society are dominant, the nature, scope and implications of urban-rural links deserve to be analyzed from the perspectives of employment and migration which are part of the dynamic calculus of urban-rural linkages. However, since both employment and migration are studied from various disciplinary stances, it is difficult for scholars to form a consensus on the issues, even within a given discipline.

Some demographic measures of rural migrants in Kenya based on survey data.

This paper presents demographic measures of migrant population in the Kericho tea plantation area in the Kenya Highlands which depends on rural-urban migration, mainly from western Kenya Districts. It is based on a demographic exploration of this rural economic island in 1978-79 during which, among other things, data on demographic and socioeconomic characteristics of migrants were collected. Data was collected using 2 separate questionnaires administered to heads of households and married females of reproductive ages 15-49 years. The survey concentrated on unskilled laborerers on the plantations as well as their counterparts in the factories. Emphasis is placed on age statistics, sex differential, fertility, mortality, and mobility measurements of migrants, using appropriate demographic technics. The salient findings are: that age reporting problems detected are common to those in estimated censuses as well as other surveys; this rural-rural migration is highly selective of males; migrants have lower fertility and mortality than non-migrants in the districts of out-migration; and a substantial proportion of migrants are temporary, expecting to return to their homes or repeat migrate elsewhere. Given the similarities between census and survey enumeration, it is concluded that demographic measurements of the 2 population categories are fairly identical, although some allowance must be made for errors inherent in sample surveys. Differences that exist are attributed to the bulge of migrants in the 20-29 year age group, and the dominance of old-age males.