Intra-Africa Migration and Xenophobia: The Imperatives for African Integration

Abstract

Abstract

The project investigates the mobility of West African migrants using Lagos and Ouagadougou as research contexts. In this project, we set out to ascertain the integration of migrants in their destination context by juxtaposing their occupational engagements in terms of accessibility to the formal or informal sector. The migrants’ accessibility to education, health care and if they suffered any form of conflict or molestation to capture the existence or otherwise of xenophobia in the two countries. To achieve the set objectives 1000 questionnaires were administered in Lagos and Ouagadougou (500 in each context). The results of the study showed that migrants in Ouagadougou and Lagos operate in the informal sector of the economy either as petty traders, food vendors, transporters etc. Migrants in Ouagadougou had equal access to public education as citizens whereas the reverse was the situation in Lagos. For health care, 99.8% of migrants in Ouagadougou had access to health care. Interestingly, migrants in Lagos experienced some form of fear as 24.60% expressed the desire to return to origin context as against only 3.10% in Ouagadougou. The study shows that migrants in Ouagadougou are completely integrated and therefore do not desire to return. The fear expressed by some migrants in Lagos negates the spirit and letters of the ECOWAS Protocol and thus, negates the AU migration policy framework 2018–2030." of such knowledges to the contemporary African and others.