Contested migration and development agendas: Contrasting views from Africa and Europe

The global compacts on migration and refugees brought to the fore the importance of human mobility in global politics and development. This chapter provides a critique of the varied conceptions of the intersection between migration and development by interrogating the debates around the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (GCM) and its implementation in Africa. It focusses on the responses to the GCM in Africa from the perspectives of the European Union, African Union policies, and regional economic communities. We argue that rather than provide an opportunity for dialogue about Africa’s development and migration’s role in it, the European migration crisis of 2015 fragmented the continent. Many European development and security programmes backed by significant funding and technical expertise appear aimed at restricting movements within Africa and between Africa and Europe. Separating Africa’s future development from mobility risks undermining a development agenda that can provide social, political, and economic stability. Rather than use this as an opportunity to craft a continent-wide response to underdevelopment and migration, both the EU and African states have squandered an opportunity to address development crises in their future.