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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | The Political Economy of Migration in Sub-Saharan Africa |
Author: | Akokpari, John K. |
Year: | 1999 |
Periodical: | African Sociological Review |
Volume: | 3 |
Issue: | 1 |
Pages: | 75-93 |
Language: | English |
Geographic terms: | Subsaharan Africa Africa |
Subjects: | politics refugees migration economic recession economic policy Economics and Trade Politics and Government Urbanization and Migration Labor and Employment |
External link: | https://www.jstor.org/stable/24487343 |
Abstract: | While the causes of Africa's refugee crisis may seem complex, deeper analysis reduces these to the prevalence of conflicts, environmental degradation, and the hostility of the global economy. The postcolonial African State has failed to distribute its meagre political and economic resources fairly among diverse, competing constituencies, and has likewise failed to promote fair competition for these resources. State partisanship has heightened social tensions, and has led to conflicts and wars, which inevitably have displaced people or induced refugees and migration. The State has also failed to establish credible environmental regimes, and although environmental factors have produced fewer emigrants and refugees than conflicts, nonetheless the influence of ecological pressures on population displacements and demographic changes cannot be underestimated. Added to this are the forces and contradictions unleashed by the global economy - marginalization, debt, and structural adjustment -, which breed conditions for conflicts and economic adversity. And while heavily devastated by the international economy, sub-Saharan Africa has to take on the onerous task of managing the refugee crisis as well. Bibliogr. |