1st Edition
African Perspectives on South–South Migration
This book investigates the diverse and dynamic forms of migration within Africa. Centring themes of agency, resource flows, and transnational networks, the book examines the enduring appeal of the Global South as a place of origin, transit, and destination.
Popular media, government pronouncements, and much of the global research discourse continue to be oriented towards migration from the Global South to the Global North, despite the fact that the vast majority of migration is South-South. This book moves beyond these mischaracterisations and instead distinctly focuses on the agency of African migrants and the creative strategies they employ while planning their routes within and across the African continent. Case studies explore the flow of resources such as people, money, skills, and knowledge throughout the continent, while also casting a light on the lived experiences of migrants as they negotiate their sometimes precarious and vulnerable positions. Underpinned by intensive empirical studies, this book challenges prevailing narratives and provides a new way of thinking about South-South Migration.
Composed by a majority of scholars from the Global South, the book will be crucial reading for researchers, students, and policy makers with a focus on South-South Migration, Migration and Inequalities, Migration and Development, and Refugee and Humanitarian Studies.
Part I: Introduction
Chapter 1: Introduction: Intra-continental migration dynamics in Africa and the importance of South-South Migration (SSM)
Meron Zeleke and Lahra Smith
Part II: Agency in South-South Migration
Chapter 2: Platinum mining, migrant labour, and community formation in informal settlements in Rustenburg, South Africa, 1994–2018
Joseph Mujere
Chapter 3: Unpacking the reasons for dominance of South-South migration: The Ethiopian case
Fana Gebresenbet
Chapter 4: Exploring the lived experiences of Ghanaian migrants along the Ghana-China migration corridor
Leander Kandilige, Joseph Awetori Yaro and Joseph Mensah
Chapter 5: Looking beyond the victimhood discourse: The case of forced migrants in the Global South
Tirsit Sahldengil
Part III: The Flows of Resources in South-South Migration
Chapter 6: Humanitarian nomads: The mobilities and disjunctures inherent to aid work in the Global South
Lauren Carruth
Chapter 7: The flow of resources in the Global South: The transfer of agricultural skills between Côte d'Ivoire and Burkina Faso
Tebkieta Alexandra Tapsoba and Bonayi Hubert Dabiré
Chapter 8: Transnational flow of ideas in the Ethiopia-South Africa migration corridor:
Hadiya experiences
Dereje Feyissa
Chapter 9: Religious place-making and African mobilities: Muslim and Christian Moroccan sites in migrant trajectories within and beyond the continent
Johara Berriane
Chapter 10: Djibouti, a migratory crossroads in the Red Sea basin: Prospects and challenges
Amina Saïd Chiré and Géraldine Pinauldt
Chapter 11: Forced Migration Life Trajectories and Politics of Contradictions: South Sudanese between being IDPs and Refugees in Sudan and South Sudan
Mohamed A. G. Bakhit
Biography
Meron Zeleke is Associate Professor at the Center for Human Rights, Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia. She has years of teaching and research experience at renowned academic institutions in Africa, North America, Europe, and Asia, and is a member of several international academic associations and an editorial board member of internationally renowned journals.
Lahra Smith is Associate Professor in the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service and the Department of Government at Georgetown University, USA, and the Director of the African Studies Program. She is a political scientist with a particular interest in citizenship, migration, and political institutions in Africa.
