This book challenges the common European notions about African migration to Europe and offers a holistic understanding of the current situation in Africa. It advocates a need to rethink Africa-Europe relations and view migration and borders as a resource rather than sources of a crisis.
Migrant movement from Africa is often misunderstood and misrepresented as invasion caused by displacement due to poverty, violent conflict and environmental stress. To control this movement and preserve national identities, the EU and its various member states resort to closing borders as a way of reinforcing their migration policies. This book aims to dismantle this stereotypical view of migration from Africa by sharing cutting-edge research from the leading scholars in Africa and Europe. It refutes the flawed narratives that position Africa as a threat to the European societies, their economies and security, and encourages a nuanced understanding of the root causes as well as the socioeconomic factors that guide the migrants’ decision-making. With chapters written in a concise style, this book brings together the migration and border studies in an innovative way to delve into the broader societal impacts of both. It also serves to de-silence the African voices in order to offer fresh insights on African migration – a discourse dominated hitherto by the European perspective.
This book constitutes a valuable resource for research scholars and students of Border Studies, Migration Studies, Conflict and Security Studies, and Development Studies seeking specialisation in these areas. Written in an accessible style, it will also appeal to a more general public interested in gaining a fuller perspective on the African reality.
Chapter 13 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.
Introduction: Migration and Border Politics Amidst the Europe-Africa Relations Part 1: Critical Perspectives on Border Regimes 1. Pushing the Boundaries Forwards: Shifting Notes on the Implications of European Border Control Externalisation Beyond the Sahel Region 2. The Africa-Frontex Intelligence Community: The EU-African Information Sharing Platform on Migration and Border Issues 3. Mainstreaming Intelligence and Information Technology in Border Governance: A Transcontinental Mechanism for Migration Flow 4. Death as Policy: The EU’s Criminalisation of Solidarity With Undocumented Migrants 5. The Euro–African Frontier Regime Between Humanitarian Reason and Security Imperative Part 2: Political Transnationalism and Policy Impact 6. African and European Legal Regimes for Intra-Continental Migration: Towards an Afro-European Integration Scheme 7. “Solidarité en Movement” Against Homeland Authoritarism: Political Transnationalism of Europe-Based Central African Migrants 8. Staying Because of All Odds: Lived Experiences of African Student Migrants in Finland 9. Untying the Migration Knot Through Trade: A Case Study of Nigeria 10. Transnationalising Business and Innovation Ecosystems Shaping EU-Africa Relations: A Case Study of Finland and Namibia Part 3: Alternative Framings for Europe-Africa Relations 11. Contemporary Representations of Migration in African Writing 12. Re-Imagining the “Area of Freedom, Security and Justice”: Europe’s Security Measures Experiences by African Migrants13. Safe European Home – Where Did You Go? On Immigration, the B/Ordered Self and The Territorial Home 14. Climate Change and the Migration Conundrum: Addressing the Elephant in the Room 15. Unveiling the Afro-European Common Geo-Cultural Space Closing Remarks: Expanding the Boundaries of Euro–Africa Relations
Jussi P. Laine is an associate professor of multidisciplinary border studies at the University of Eastern Finland and holds the title of Docent of Human Geography from the University of Oulu, Finland. Currently, he also serves as the President of the Association for Borderlands Studies. Inocent Moyo is a Senior Lecturer and Head of Department of Geography and Environmental Studies, University of Zululand, South Africa. His research interests include migration and development, migration politics, cross-border trade, regional integration in the Southern African Development Community, borders and urban informality and governance. Christopher Changwe Nshimbi is Director and a Department of Science and Technology/National Research Foundation Research Fellow at the Centre for the Study of Governance Innovation, University of Pretoria. His current research focuses on migration, borders, regional integration, the informal economy, and water resources management.
