Episode 26: The state of free movement of persons in Africa

The Migration & Diaspora Podcast

Hello, you're listening to the Migration & Diaspora Podcast, with me Loksan Harley. Today we're talking all about the state of free movement of persons across the African continent with Amanda Bisong.

Amanda is a Policy Officer at the European Centre for Development Policy Management (ECDPM), an independent think tank based in Maastricht, the Netherlands, that wants to make policies in Europe and Africa work for inclusive and sustainable development.

Amanda, originally from Nigeria, has Master's degrees in International Law and Economics (World Trade Institute, Bern) and International Trade Policy and Trade Law (Lund University). She is currently also pursuing her part-time PhD on Regional Migration Governance (with a focus on West Africa) at the University of Nigeria.

Amanda previously worked at the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) as Head of Trade and Customs managing a project on regional integration and trade in the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). Before that, Amanda worked at the ECOWAS Trade Directorate, the National Association of Nigerian Traders and the Nigerian Bar Association. Her focus research areas are on migration agreements, labour migration, exploring the linkages between trade and migration in Africa, migration governance and the interplay between regional and national commitments.

Given her extensive work on the topic, Amanda was the ideal person to talk to us about regional migration governance in the African context, especially with regard to free movement of persons frameworks. Amanda starts by introducing us to what free movement of persons means (or, rather, how there is no universal definition), and explains how different regions of Africa, as well as the continent as a whole at the African Union level, have developed various frameworks that enable freer movement of Africans.

It's a bit of a long interview, in part because of some banter and tangents for which I'll take some responsibility but also because Amanda with her combination of academic, practitioner and life experiences injects so much nuance into the discussion. And it's worthwhile listening till the end, when I get Amanda's predictions for what free movement in Africa might look like ten years from now!

Without further ado, thank you so much for listening and we hope you enjoy the show.

Useful links

• About Amanda Bisong
• Amanda/ECDPM's study: Free movement in West Africa: Juxtapositions and divergent interests
• Africa's overlapping regional groupings (infographic)
• Africa Regional Integration Index
• The Development of the AU Free Movement of Persons Protocol: Origins, Objectives and Key Concerns (By Emmerentia Erasmus and Loksan Harley)
• MPI: Africa Moves Towards Intracontinental Free Movement for Its Booming Population
• AU Free Movement of Persons Protocol