Mobilities
Research in this section develops new transdisciplinary research questions and conceptual and methodological approaches to mobilities. This RS questions the drivers of differential mobilities, dwelling and place-making practices; the environmental impacts associated with, for example, physical transport; multiple concepts of resource and environmental manage-ment and perceptions of climate and ecological events. We investigate how mobilities are tracked, ordered and governed in the context of, e.g., migration control, or biometric citizen-ship. We understand mobilities as molded to fit the different historical contexts in and with which they emerge, and organised through specific constellations of uneven movements.
Spokesperson:
- Prof. Dr. Taibat LAWANSON
Member:
- Prof. Dr. Franca ATTOH
Project 1
Intra-Africa Migration and Xenophobia: The Imperatives for African Integration.
Project Leaders:
Prof. Dr. Franca Attoh.
Prof. Dr. ‘kayode Eesuola.
Team Members:
Dr. Boniface Desire (ACC- Buikina Faso).
Dr. Samuel Adejoh.
Dr. Godwin Okeke.
Mr. Ebenezer Ishola.
Ms. Ebele Chibuzor.
Ms. Shola Oguntola.
Ms. Tosin Olorinsakin.
Summary of the Approved Project:
This research project focuses on migration-xenophobia nexus in Nigeria and Burkina Faso; with implications for African Integration. Nigeria and Burkina are dominant African migrants’ destinations. Both got independence in 1960. Besides, the combination of Francophone and Anglophone experiences over intra-African migration promises to enrich literature, promote inter ACCs cooperation, as well as raise new debates and theories especially towards the integrationist visions and missions of the AU and the ECOWAS.
Historically, West Africa’s migration and resettlements have been majorly driven by ecological survival, business and commerce. Migrants from the Sahel move to the Coastal region to sustain living during seasons of drought. Their movement, along with other countries’ migrants’ who are mostly unskilled and uneducated, pressurizes the informal sector of the economies of host communities while also bringing arm-based insecurity. All these cause rivalry and tension between migrants and host communities, and restrict migrants’ access to public education, health, political participation and other social services that may help integrate them within the host communities. Interestingly, the host countries do not wittingly, or otherwise, observe the ECOWAS and AU migration protocols to resolve these contradictions.
Consequently, migrants often remain psychologically insecure and thus hardly engage in tangible investments wherever they settle. In line with African Multiples, therefore, this research has strong deterministic implications for the migration-xenophobia dynamics in the context of African Union’s migration policy framework (2018-2030) which emphasizes regional and continental integration as imperative to wealth creation and poverty eradication in Africa. The research will, in process of conduct, explore the gender dimensions of migrants’ access to learning, knowledge and skills acquisition, health, affiliation, security, trade, social justice as well as informal sector employments in Nigeria and Burkina Faso.
Links with RS: Mobilities, in synergy with Affiliations.
Contact: Sociology, University of Lagos. Lagos, Nigeria, fattoh@unilag.edu.ng or franca.attoh92@gmail.com
Project 2
Mobilities Across West African Corridors.
Team Members:
Prof. Dr. Taibat Lawanson.
Dr. Abisoye Eleshin.
Links with RS: Mobilities.