The first-ever South-South Migration Network workshop was held in Ghana with a call on migration experts to support the agenda of changing the negative narratives about migration.
The two-days event sets the agenda for the African hub of the south-south migration network.
It was coordinated by the Centre for Migration Studies, University of Ghana and University of Cape Town, South Africa and was attended by migration academics, researchers, activists and affiliates from Ghana, Kenya, Cape Town, Burkina Faso, Mozambique, and Ethiopia, among others.
The aim is to build a Network drawing on the work (research and interventions) carried out by individuals and collective, establish an Africa-based collective of scholars on south-south migration, including practitioners and activists that takes seriously the task of decentralising knowledge production on migration broadly, and south-south migration.
The Network would also enhance advocacy around south-south migration and protection of mobile populations within
national, regional, continental and global frameworks.
Professor Mary Boatemaa Setrana, Director of the Centre for Migration Studies, University of Ghana, said the workshop would take stock of the knowledge produced by previous and existing research for the purposes of comparative analysis with the purpose of making intellectual contribution to the field of south-south migration.
She said In 2018, over 80 migration researchers, teachers, activists and students, out of which a greater percentage were from the Global South, came together to research on migration, inequality and development in the Global South.
She said, since the inception of that largest research on south-south migration, the aim among others, had been to decentre knowledge production on migration research, ‘while also changing the negative narratives portraying that majority of Global South migration is directed to the Global North.’
Professor Setrana said: ‘To speak back to these and many other existing inequalities, we have put together
these two days meeting to create an avenue for the initiation of a network that gives African migration researchers, scholars, activists and migrants/migrant associations, the opportunity to reflect and relearn from the bottom-up.
‘Although, this meeting is being coordinated by the Centre for Migration Studies, University of Ghana and University of Cape Town, South Africa, we trust that you will all give us your support to achieve the goals of this network.
‘For us as Africans, migration is a reality and not a dream. Migration is a real-life experience and not a labelled and weaponised concept,’ she said and urged all to put their hands together to achieve the targets.
Dr Faisal Garba, University of Cape Town and African Institute Sharjah, announced that the network also sought to provide space for reflections on the commonalities and divergences from research findings with an express commitment to bridging the linguistic divide that has kept African scholarship apart.
‘It will as well seeks to develop a
research /advocacy agenda. For example, producing a south-south migration dictionary, or a critical appraisal of continental policy framework on existing south-south migration related issues and (im)mobility.’
He said the Network would initiate a process to unlearn particularities that has and continue to be sold as universally accepted principles in the field of migration studies.
‘We also hope to programmatically engage newly minted PhDs and other early career researchers to push our agenda,’ he added.
The participants stressed need to emphasise on internal source of funding to sustain the activities of the network, since it would not be easy to bridge fighting the agenda and still depend on foreign donors.
Source: Ghana News Agency
