Roundtable ‚Refugee and migration regimes in Africa – an entanglement at which costs?‘ organised by the Working Group Africa for the Conference of the Network Forced Migration Research (Netzwerk Fluchtforschung, 17. - 19. 09. 2020, online)
Chair: Jochen Lingelbach (Bayreuth University, DE)
Franzisca Zanker (Arnold Bergstraesser Institute, Freiburg, DE)
Participants: Kamal Donko (LASDEL Parakou, BJ)
Ulrike Krause (Osnabrück University, DE)
Laura Lambert (Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, DE)
Khangelani Moyo (University of the Witwatersrand, ZA)
Michael Owiso (Maseno University, KE)
Tabea Scharrer (Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, DE)
Matthias Schneider (Goethe University Frankfurt, DE)
Franzisca Zanker (Arnold Bergstraesser Institute, Freiburg, DE)
Following the legal distinction between “refugee” and “migrant”, research on forced migration and migration is often subject to thematic separation. Nevertheless, policy makers have shown a growing interest in the links between asylum/refugee and migration regimes, especially since the advent of the “Mixed Migration” approach. While its main focus purportedly lies on the protection needs of potential asylum-seekers travelling on the same routes as other migrants, the concept was actually invented to promote migration control.
Bringing together researchers who conduct fieldwork on (forced) migration and exile in different parts of Africa (Eritrea, the Gambia, Kenya, Niger, Senegal, Somalia, South Africa, Uganda), this round table proposes a discussion on the connections between asylum/refugee protection and migration control and the unanticipated effects of this interplay. Some of the leading questions will be: How can migration policies lead to new refugee movements? How might refugee protection create new forms of migration? Which leverage do national governments in Africa have when crafting their migration/asylum policies? How do refugees and migrants navigate these migration/ asylum regimes and address their numerous international, regional, national and local actors?