Category: Research notes
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Mapping Migration
This post introduces the Atlas of African Migration, developed by the Scalabrini Institute for Human Mobility in Africa (SIHMA), which combines infographics with country profiles and migration narratives. The research outlines migration drivers, tracks movement corridors and identifies correlations between economic conditions and migration flows.
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Welcoming the Newcomers Our Way
Mainstream perceptions in public, media, and policy discourses predominantly assign the responsibility of integrating internally displaced persons to local and national institutions. In this post, Joyce Takaindisa reflects on recent fieldwork conducted in Chimanimani, Zimbabwe where Cyclone Idai displaced thousands and left a trail of destruction in 2019. She highlights the unique traditional practices that transcend conventional…
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The Ruins of Kafala Bending
Kafala is a sponsorship system that governs the employment of migrant workers in the Gulf States, particularly in sectors such as construction, domestic work, and hospitality. Under the kafala system, domestic workers are tied to their employers (kafils), often resulting in vulnerable and oppressive conditions. Some domestic workers opt for escaping the system, often under…
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Europe’s ‘ineffective’ migration policies work well for white supremacy
This blog post describes how white supremacy works through European approaches to ‘manage’ migration from Africa. Iriann Freemantle argues that while it sometimes takes militant forms, the mainstream version of white supremacy is much more pervasive. Although still violent, it is rhetorically softer and avoids explicit racial bias. Yet, its basic premise remains: that whiteness…
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Too many nerds in one room: Theories, theorization, and deconstructing categories
This post reflects on theory-building and inequality in migration research related to African contexts, and the power of categorisations about displacement.
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Historical Migrations in Africa: From Flexible Configurations to Transgressive Mobilities
Historical mobilities in Africa challenge the conceptualisation of mobility and immobility as binaries. In this post, Rose Jaji elaborates on how contemporary migration governance on the continent can be traced back to the transplantation of Western notions of statehood and nationhood to Africa through colonialism, and how these ideas transformed migration and non-migration from continuums…
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“Inequality isn’t just ‘out there’”: Interrogating disparities in research on mobilities and inequality in Africa
In this post, Hassan Ould Moctar and Heike Drotbohm reflect on historical and enduring structural inequalities that affect the conduct and framing of migration scholarship in different ways. They draw on the discussion during a Point Sud workshop co-organised by AMMODI in Ghana in March 2023.
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Border management and state sovereignty in the Sahel
Since 2015, European interventions in the Sahel have surged in response to ‘irregular’ migration to the EU and the perceived incapacity of the Sahelian states to control their own borders. In this blog post, Ekaterina Golovko scrutinises the notion of capacity building in relation to local surveillance committees in order to deconstruct the underlying logics…
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Welcome aboard KLM Air Land! Reflections on the mobilities turn
With inspiration from the rich symbolism of local transportation aesthetics in western Ghana, Nauja Kleist reflects on the mobilities turn on the basis of her keynote at the inaugural AMMODI workshop in September 2018. She summarises some of the key features of the mobilities approach and considers the perspectives it inspires and calls for, with…
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Fictional writing and migration knowledge. Reflections on Refugee in Europe by Mehaba Jemal
Talk about migration is widespread in present-day media. Paradoxically, the abundance of reports on migration does not seem to help bring the experience of migrants closer. On the contrary, the overuse of the term ‘migrant’ makes us forget that this word is much too broad to explain anything substantial about the people it denotes. Nikolay…