Labour migration in Africa

Labour migration from Africa is mostly assumed to be destined for destinations in the global North, and the management of migratory flows is greatly influenced by externalised migration policies from foreign interests. Much as there is a growing trend of external policies that seek to shape labour migration flows from Africa, the continent is equally proactive in streamlining labour migration governance, through different policies and programmes at the global, continental, regional and national spatial levels. The point of departure for this chapter is the repositioning of the migration narrative which presents labour migration in and from Africa as a vacuous and ungoverned space to one that analyses existing approaches to the management of labour migration in Africa, the roles of Regional Economic Communities (RECs) as vehicles for facilitating free mobility and the impacts of labour migration on the continent. However, our analysis concludes that most RECs still lack clear Regional Labour Migration Frameworks, BLAs and LMIS which are critical vehicles for the realisation of the continent’s aspirations. We emphasise the need for the rights of all migrants, highly skilled and low-skilled, to be central in all national, regional and continental migration policies. We also highlight the need for the gendered dimensions of labour migration, disparities in the protection of the rights of labour migrants in the formal and informal sectors, access to and portability of social security benefits among others to be acknowledged as core issues that need to be reflected in the management of labour migration.