Southern Africa

Migration issues in Southern Africa

Southern Africa’s economy and society have been shaped by human mobility and efforts to control it. The end of apartheid in South Africa, conflicts and political instability in neighbouring countries, and shifting modes of production mean that more people are moving for ever more diverse reasons. For some, these new forms of mobility offer the promise of moving out of poverty. They also generate new governance challenges.

Regional partner

ACMSThe African Centre for Migration & Society (ACMS)

The African Centre for Migration & Society (ACMS), based at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, is one of the leading African institutions for research, teaching and outreach on migration. The Centre works with a range of partners by providing up to date research-based knowledge on migration and its effects on society, within South Africa and beyond its borders.

Role of the Migrating Out of Poverty RPC in Southern Africa

RPC partners have identified four broad topics of research for the region:

  • The lack of information on the current state of migration policy development and how it limits an understanding of the state of migration development within the region.
  • The web of interest groups involved in processes and the power relations that shape migration policies.
  • The role played by sub-national bureaucracies in enabling local government to implement pro-poor migration policies.
  • The countries and polities within Southern Africa characterized by low levels of social protection and where social protection systems render access to social rights a sensitive issue.