ULG_MFWA2021 - Mobilities and Flows Across West African Urban Corridors

Various scholars have studied African migrations but have largely neglected to consider the complexities especially in the decade of state failure and economic depression. The flow of people and resources at the sub-regional scale has also received limited scholarly interrogation. What is apparent is that West Africa is characterised by internal mobility and has the highest rate of migration in Africa, with an estimated intra-regional migration of 70-83%. In the decade after the economic depression, many young persons including professionals began a migratory movement in search of economic opportunities. People from Ghana, Benin and Togo come to Nigeria to work as domestics, artisans and teachers. Young Nigerians move to Ghana and Cote D'Ivoire to work in the ICT hubs, while others work as vendors in the second-hand clothing markets. Nigerians also migrate to Benin and Togo to trade and work in the automobile sector. Some others move to Senegal, Burkina Faso and Niger as a prelude to future migration to other African regions and beyond. As these flows are largely informal, undocumented and sometimes illegal (even criminal), while some ECOWAS member states welcome migrants as contributors to economic development and regional cohesion, others consider them to be drivers of insecurity and economic miscreants. Nonetheless, in the course of such migrations, both the material and non-material culture are deemed to move, hence new social identities and (sub)cultures are formed.

In many instances, migrant enclaves emerge - integrating with the larger city for economic reasons, while attempting to preserve social identities. Therefore this study will seek to establish how migrant enclaves interface with their host cities in the contexts of livelihoods, acculturation and even political praxis. Lagos, Cotonou, Accra and Ouagadougou are purposely selected as case study sites because they expressly represent the anglophone-francophone diversity and are primate cities of their respective countries. Furthermore, there is anecdotal evidence of significant migrant activities within these cities which we will attempt to empirically ascertain.

African culture and language are considered interesting work spaces within African studies, more so because it is almost impossible to detach language and culture from a people. Culture influences the structure and functions of a group, while language influences their individual interpretation of reality (Ayeomoni, 2011). While we recognise the ethnic similitude of many West African peoples, this study will seek to explore how language, religion and culture(ie fashion, cuisine and art) are being reconstructed in the various migrant enclaves, as well as the peculiar forms of social identities being formed. The West African sub-region is made up of countries whose current socio-political practices still bear vestiges of their colonial legacies. This study will interrogate how these differentials play out in the operationalisation of regional integration agreements i.e. ECOWAS protocols and streetscale political practice.

This study becomes necessary seeing that despite the intense movements of people and resources within the West African sub-region, the patterns and implications of such movements are under-reported and more likely to be based on anecdotal rather than empirical evidence. Where academic studies on migration in West Africa exist, they often adopt a singular disciplinary focus, narrowly examining the operationalisation of formalised (ECOWAS enabled) protocols. Therefore, we seek to bridge this knowledge gap by ascertaining who and what moves informally within and across the West African sub-region, and how such mobilities shape everyday urban processes and socio-cultural dynamics.

The aim of this research is to interrogate - through multidisciplinary lens - spatial mobilities of people and resources across West African cities, and the interface across socio - economic, cultural and political milieu. Specific objectives include:

i. Map traditional and emerging socio-economic flows and routes across West Africa.
ii. Determine the flow of youth and labour migrations in the West African sub-region.
iii. Establish the constraints and enablers of peculiar types of mobility and migration
iv. Ascertain the contexts of ethnic enclaving, acculturation and (re)identities through migration.
v. Appraise existing ECOWAS protocols vis a vis study finding (i – iii above)

We note that there are two ongoing projects within the African Cluster Centre (Lagos ACC and Moi ACC) that address aspects of migration in Africa. Our proposal is a clear departure from these two because of the geographic context in that it encompases a study of urban socio-spatial mobilities in West Africa.