Rhetoric of the root causes of African irregular migration

Even when the EU pursued African countries for a partnership towards migration control, there was already ongoing critical rhetoric of what consisted of the root causes of irregular migration.

13 2nacheki (2019). [the original event took place in 2014]

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Overall, African irregular migration to Europe was constructed as people’s response to unlimited and unfair resources flow out of the continent to Europe. This rhetoric by African leaders, activists, and other influential people highlighted trade as one of the root causes of irregular migration. The negative terms of trade were perceived to cause impoverishment in the continent.

Aminata Traoré, a former Malian minister of culture and an activist, explained the nexus between European exploitation (neo-colonialism) and African irregular migration. She presented a question to the EU that,

“now that you (the EU actors) have devastated the ecosystems, dulled the people’s mind and humiliated them, as a result, they have turned into complete conformists, how can you dare to tell these people they should stay at home, while at the same time you take everything from them, what they needed to live a dignified life in their countries: How? If you don’t want someone to come to your countries, give him the opportunity to manage his wealth himself. Don’t take from him that what he needs to live dignifiedly at his home, while simultaneously locking your doors twice. He will necessarily search for what you have taken from him. Yet, are the free countries of Europe capable to understand this?”.¹⁴

As a Pan-Africanist, Aminata Traoré framed the EU actor as part of the root cause of African irregular migration. She constructed the root causes as the devastation of the ecosystem and the exploitation of resources by Europe. She then connected the EU’s contribution to the root causes, with the inconsistency of the EU’s ‘actorness’ in two ways. First, she used ‘while simultaneously locking your doors twice’ to describe fortress Europe. Secondly, she critiqued

14Estifanos (2016).

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normative power Europe by presenting a question, ‘Yet, are the free countries of Europe capable to understand this?’ The persuasiveness of Traoré’s rhetoric was not only based on her conceptualization of the EU’s role in causing irregular migration but also the EU’s inconsistency in its normative power.

Europe had been argued to be one of the key contributors to global warming and climatic change, which adversely affected the livelihoods of the global south. Yordanos Estifanos, a pan-Africanist and an activist, argued that irregular migration was not only a result of unfair and exploitative relations between Europe and Africa but also as a result of climate change. To Estifanos,

“Of the major constraints that preclude African countries from realizing a potential demographic dividend, climate change and resource exploitation stand on top. Although these factors have intensified in recent decades, they have always been present, embedded in historical and structural relations, which can be traced back to the era of the industrial revolution and colonization. Being confronted with increasing climate change hazards (some of which are climate-change induced) and growing competition for African resources, mainly by countries in the Global North, the youth from different African countries are responding in different ways. Migration, both internal and international, is one of these responses to climate change and resource exploitation as well as skewed historical and prevailing twisted economic, political and power relations.

Migration being inherently age selective, youth migration is particularly prominent. Consequently, many African youths question the actions and inactions of international actors as well as the unfairness of global economic inequalities through migration. The conventional narrative regarding African

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migrants who are heading to countries in the Global North, however, is that they are irregular (another way of saying illegal) migrants”. ¹⁵

Estifanos’ argument was seemingly an extension of Traoré's rhetoric. His argument was based on the increased awareness of economic exploitation climate change had caused displacement and forced migration. As Estifanos explained, a significant concern was how the developed world had contributed to climate change, which disproportionately affected the developing world, thereby causing irregular migrants. He further viewed both neo-colonialism and colonialism as the origin of this vulnerability ‘…these factors have always been present, embedded in historical and structural relations which can be traced back to the era of the industrial revolution and colonization’. The picture Estifanos created was that colonialism was the root cause of African irregular migration and had been sustained by neo-colonial structures.

He concluded by urging the EU to take responsibility for contributing to the root causes of African irregular migration.

“It shows that it is rather the direct responsibility of countries in the Global North to welcome African migrants as long as the former directly or indirectly contribute to migration, i.e., through climate change and resource exploitations. […] Welcoming African migrants into Europe is not a moral question only […]. It rather is a responsibility for the harm and disruption caused by undesirable consequences of climate change and resource exploitations that are embedded in skewed economic, political and power relations” ¹⁶ .

Although Estifano’s argument appeared to address the universal audience using the term Global North, his target audience was Europe (the EU) that was the ultimate destination for irregular African migrants. He used the terms like ‘former directly and indirectly contributors’

15ibid

16 Estifanos (2016).

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of migration to denote colonialism and neo-colonialism, respectively. Besides, he saw the EU actors obliged to receive African irregular migrants for being part of what he terms as the root cause – neo-colonialism, i.e., ‘..it rather is a responsibility for the harm and disruption caused by undesirable consequences of climate change and resource exploitations that are embedded in skewed economic, political and power relations.’ Alongside faulting the EU for being part of the root causes of African irregular migration, like Aminata Traoré, Estifano criticized normative power Europe for its fortress approach.

“Juxtaposed against these are the governments in countries of the global north which are building more and more high-tech fortresses through adopting draconian anti-immigration laws as well as intervening in the politics of periphery countries under the pretext of national security and, at times, under the guise of establishing democracy”. ¹⁷

In summary, African partners' rhetoric always linked root causes of irregular migration to colonial and neo-colonial agendas. The rhetoric was further lauded by the critic of the EU’s normative actorness in irregular migration control.