What drives African migration and what role does development aid have to play?

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In the past decades, peaks in African migrant arrivals to Europe’s Southern borders has often led to oversimplified assumptions about how conflicts and lack of development drive migration to Europe. The way irregular migrants are portrayed in the media, as desperate people willing to risk everything to reach Europe, furthermore, gives the impression that a large exodos is about to take place from the African continent and that major European driven measures are needed stop people from coming.

The European Union’s 5 billion Euros ‘Emergency Trust Fund for Africa (EUTF) is a case in point. From the outset, its objective has been to address ‘the root causes’ of instability, forced displacement and irregular migration and to contribute to better migration management. Over the past five years, the EUFT has funded 254 migration and displacement related programs in 26 African countries. But what is the relationship between development aid and migration?

Join us at this webinar where we will shed light on the main drivers of contemporary African migration and the relationship between migration and development. What are the policy implications, and can development aid be used to curb unwanted migration? How do potential migrants respond to European initiatives that increasingly aims to make them stay in their home communities?

Speakers
Jessica Hagen-Zanker, Senior Research Fellow, ODI
Leander Kandilige, Researcher, University of Ghana
Dr. Oliver Bakewell, University of Manchester
Ida Marie Vammen, Postdoc, DIIS
Ninna Nyberg Sørensen, Head of Unit and Senior Researcher, DIIS
Lars Engberg-Pedersen, Head of Unit and Senior Researcher, DIIS

Programme
14.30-14.35    Welcome and introduction, Ida Marie Vammen
14.35-14.50    How are migration decisions affected by policy? Reflections from the MIGNEX project and beyond, Jessica Hagen-Zanker
14.50-15.05    Perspectives from Ghana: local responses to the increased focus on addressing the root causes of migration in development programs, Leander Kandilige
15.05-15.20    Learning from the EU Emergency Trust Fund in the Horn of Africa: implications for the development and migration agenda, Oliver Bakewell
15.20-15.35    Comment, Ninna Nyberg Sørensen
15.35-16.00    Q&A - moderated by Lars Engberg-Pedersen

Recorded on Tuesday 23 November 2021, 14.30-16.00