Migration, Labour & Employment

Throughout its history, Africa has experienced migratory movements, both voluntary and forced, which have contributed to its contemporary demographic landscape. In many parts of the continent, communities are spread across two or three nation-States, and movement is often not limited by political boundaries. Migration in Africa is due to a multiplicity of factors that include the need for improved socio-economic conditions through employment, environmental factors, as well as respite from political instability, conflict and civil strife. Africa is also witnessing changing patterns of migration reflected in the feminisation of migration; an increase in the number of youths on the move, and an upsurge in irregular migratory flows, which include human trafficking and migrant smuggling.

Economic integration is a key pathway to development and demands labour mobility and other forms of economic engagement that necessitate the movement of persons and the AU believes that if managed in a coherent manner and if the key factors causing migration on the continent are addressed, nations and regions can reap the benefits of the linkages between migration and development as the continent strives towards the ideals of Agenda 2063.

The AU’s Migration Policy Framework for Africa MPFA is one of the continental frameworks that has been developed to enable Africa to better manage and benefit from planned migration by providing strategic guidelines to Member States and RECs in the management of migration through the formulation

and implementation of their own national and regional migration policies in accordance with their priorities and resources. The MPFA to provides guidelines in several key areas including:

• Migration Governance
• Labour Migration and Education
• Diaspora Engagement
• Border Governance;
• Irregular Migration;
• Forced Displacement;
• Internal Migration;
• Migration and Trade;

The Social Affairs Department promotes the work of the AU in the area of migration, labour and employment and the Political Affairs Department is working with members states to implement the AU Protocol on Free Movement of Persons, Rights of Residence and Right of Establishment.