Critical migration policy narratives from West Africa
| Published date | 01 August 2022 |
| Author | Joseph Kofi Teye |
| Date | 01 August 2022 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/imig.13012 |
International Migration. 2022;60:73–84.
|
73
wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/imig
INTRODUCTION
While human mob ility has always b een an integral p art of liveliho ods in West Afric a (Adepoju, 20 05), the sub-
region has becom e the focus of polic y discussions on m igration governa nce in recent years ( Awumbila et al. ,
2014). The i ncreased intere st of the international communit y in migration issues in West Afric a is partly due to
the high level of labo ur migration and forced displac ement being witnessed in the su b- region (Teye et al., 20 19;
Received: 25 Feb ruary 2021
|
Revised: 6 Februa ry 2022
|
Accepted: 4 April 2 022
DOI: 10 .1111/imig .13012
SPECIAL ISSUE ARTICLE
Critical migration policy narratives from
West Africa
Joseph Kofi Teye
© 2022 The Auth ors. Internation al Migration © 2022 IO M
Centre for Migr ation Studies, Un iversity of
Ghana, Legon- Accra, Ghana
Correspondence
Joseph Kofi Teye, Cent re for Migration
Studies, Uni versity of Ghana, P.O. Box LG
59, Legon- Accra, Ghana.
Emails: jteye@ug.edu.ghor teyejoseph@
yahoo.co.uk
Abstract
Although there a re contesting persp ectives on migr ation,
there is little un derstanding of h ow narratives of variou s
policy actors s hape migration governa nce in West Africa.
This paper relies on a d esk- review and qualitati ve data to
examine the narra tives that shape migr ation policy formu-
lation and outcomes in West A frica. The fin dings indicate
that while various stakeholders have been championing
divergent narratives on migration, programmes that have
been adopted by West Afri can countries to mana ge migra-
tion have largely been ba sed on the narrati ves of political
elite and international development partners, although
there were situations where these narratives were not sup-
ported by any stron g evidence. While ear ly views on the
impacts of intern ational migration po rtrayed it as a thre at
to socio- economic development, more recent narratives
have recognized the potential of mi gration to contribute
to socio- economic transformation. Consequently, various
West African countri es are developing polic ies to harness
the benefits of im migration, emigr ation and return migr a-
tion for socio- economic development.
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