Migration, Cross-Border Trade and Development in Africa

Migration, Cross-Border Trade and Development in Africa
Author: Christopher Changwe Nshimbi
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 231
Release: 2017-10-12
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 3319553992

Based on migration dynamics in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region, this edited volume focuses on the activities of grassroots and informal non-state actors. The authors explore cross-border economic activities, migration governance issues, the regional integration project of the SADC, and implications for sustainable development in Africa. Examining the apparent success of immigrant entrepreneurs operating in cities of economically depressed countries such as Zimbabwe, it also discusses the role of local authorities in managing migration to achieve development. Thus, the book is centred on human mobility, the building of cohesive communities between immigrants and indigenous people, the informal economic activities of cross-border traders and undocumented migrants, and regional integration, providing a multidisciplinary and rich source of knowledge for scholars interested in African politics, labour, migration and economy.

Calibrating Informal Cross-Border Trade in Southern Africa

Calibrating Informal Cross-Border Trade in Southern Africa
Author: Peberdy, Sally
Publisher: Southern African Migration Programme
Total Pages: 41
Release: 2017-01-17
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1920596135

The study demonstrates that informal cross-border is a complex phenomenon and not uniform across the region, or even through border posts of the same country. However, the overall volume of trade, duties paid and VAT foregone, as well as the types of goods and where they are produced, indicate that this sector of regional trade should be given much greater attention and support by governments of the region as well as regional organizations such as the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), SADC and the Southern African Customs Union (SACU).

Informal cross-border trade in Africa: How much? Why? And what impact?

Informal cross-border trade in Africa: How much? Why? And what impact?
Author: Bouet, Antoine
Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst
Total Pages: 56
Release: 2018-12-21
Genre: Political Science
ISBN:

Informal cross-border trade (ICBT) represents a prominent phenomenon in Africa. Several studies suggest that for certain products and countries, the value of informal trade may meet or even exceed the value of formal trade. This paper provides a review of existing efforts to measure informal trade. We list 18 initiatives aimed at measuring ICBT in Africa. The paper also summarizes discussions conducted with many stakeholders in Africa between December 2016 and May 2018 regarding the measurement, the determinants, and the implications of ICBT. The methodologies used to measure ICBT in Africa differ widely, but they do confirm that informal trade in Africa is both sizeable and volatile. Both evidence on the determinants of ICBT and discussions with stakeholders suggest that policies should aim to reduce the existing costs associated with formal trade and provide positive incentives for traders and producers to move into the formal economy in order to avoid the loss of economic potential stemming from informal trade.

Migration and Development in Africa

Migration and Development in Africa
Author: Richard Black
Publisher: Institute for Democracy in South Africa
Total Pages: 176
Release: 2006
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN:

The Southern Africa Migration Project (SAPM) launches its new series on migration and development. Migration has been an integral aspect of the labour markets across much of Africa for at least the last century, cutting across class and skill boundaries. It represents an important livelihood strategy for poor households, but is also characteristic of the better off, including many African elites. Understanding is slowly emerging of the potentially positive role that migration can play in reducing poverty and 'mobilising' the African diaspora in development. This first title in this series provides an overview of the complex political, economic and human development issues at stake around the migration phenomenon in the twenty-first century. It gives valuable factual and statistical data to inform debates on this contentious political topic. This publication is the product of collaboration between the Southern African Migration Project and the Centre for Globalization, Poverty and Migration at Sussex University. Subsequent editions are planned on HIV/AIDS, health, the brain-drain, and food security in Africa.

Informal Entrepreneurship and Cross-Border Trade between Zimbabwe and South Africa

Informal Entrepreneurship and Cross-Border Trade between Zimbabwe and South Africa
Author: Abel Chikanda
Publisher: African Books Collective
Total Pages: 47
Release: 2017-02-10
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1920596313

Zimbabwe has witnessed the rapid expansion of informal cross-border trading (ICBT) with neighbouring countries over the past two decades. Beginning in the mid-1990s when the country embarked on its Economic Structural Adjustment Programme (ESAP), a large number of people were forced into informal employment through worsening economic conditions and the decline in formal sector jobs. The countrys post-2000 economic col-lapse resulted in the closure of many industries and created market opportunities for the further expansion of ICBT. This report, part of SAMPs Growing Informal Cities series, sought to provide a current picture of ICBT in Zimbabwe by interviewing a sample of 514 Harare-based informal entrepreneurs involved in cross-border trading with South Africa.

Perspectives on the State Borders in Globalized Africa

Perspectives on the State Borders in Globalized Africa
Author: Yuichi Sasaoka
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 223
Release: 2022-02-25
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1000542785

Assessing the different kinds of borders between African nations, the contributors present a borderland and trans-region approach to understanding the challenges and opportunities facing the peoples of the African continent. Africa faces rampant violence, terrorism, deterioration of water-energy-food provision, influxes of refugees and immigrants, and religious hatred under the trends of globalization. Solutions for these issues require new perspectives that are not attempted by conventional state-building approaches. Statehood is limited in many places on the African continent because many states are combined by loose political ties. African states’ borders tend to be regarded as porous and fragile. However, as the contributors to this volume argue, those porous borders can contribute to cultural and socio-economic network construction beyond states and the creation of active borderlands by increasing people’s mobility, contact, and trade. A must read for scholars of African studies that will also be of great value to academics and students with a broader interest in nationhood, globalization, and borders.

Informal Entrepreneurship and Cross-Border Trade in Maputo, Mozambique

Informal Entrepreneurship and Cross-Border Trade in Maputo, Mozambique
Author: Raimundo, Ines
Publisher: Southern African Migration Programme
Total Pages: 58
Release: 2017-01-17
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1920596208

This report presents the results of a SAMP survey of informal entrepreneurs connected to cross-border trade between Johannesburg and Maputou during 2014. The study sought to enhance the evidence base on the links between migration and informal entrepreneur-ship in Southern African cities and to examine the implications for municipal, national and regional policy.

Women Without Borders

Women Without Borders
Author: V. N. Muzvidziwa
Publisher: OSSREA
Total Pages: 208
Release: 2005
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN:

In the face of a declining and collapsing national economy, this book presents the story of enterprising and entrepreneurial Zimbabwean women, operating as informal cross-border traders in the SADC region. The women are struggling against economic wants and deprivation, and devising their own initiatives to defeat poverty. The study relates their hopes, perceptions and strategies for managing the structural constraints at micro- and macro-levels that at once make their activities necessary, and simultaneously impose limitations on them.

Regional Integration and Migration in Africa

Regional Integration and Migration in Africa
Author: Vusi Gumede
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 206
Release: 2020-06-02
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9004411224

This comparative book debates migration and regional integration in the two regional economic blocs, namely the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). The book takes a historical and nuanced citizenship approach to integration by analysing regional integration from the perspective of non-state actors and how they negotiate various structures and institutions in their pursuit for life and livelihood in a contemporary context marked by mobility and economic fragmentation.

Intra-Africa Migrations

Intra-Africa Migrations
Author: Inocent Moyo
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 273
Release: 2021-02-21
Genre: History
ISBN: 1000343901

This book discusses regional and continental integration in Africa by examining the management of migration across the continent. It examines borders and securitisation of migration and the challenges and opportunities that arise out of reconfigured continental demographics. The book offers insights on intra-Africa migrations and highlights how intra-continental migration creates socio-economic and cultural borders. It explores how these borders, beyond the physical boundaries of states, including the Berlin Conference-constructed borders, create cultural divides, challenges for economic integration and cross-border security, and irregular migration patterns. While the movement of economic goods is valued for regional economic integration, the mobility of people is seen as a threat. This approach to migration contradicts the intentions of true integration and development, and triggers negative responses such as xenophobia that cannot be addressed by simply managing the physical border and allowing free movement. This book engages in a pivotal discussion of these issues, which are hitherto missing in African border studies, by demonstrating the ubiquity and overreaching influence of various kinds of borders on the African continent. With multidisciplinary contributions that provide an in-depth understanding of intra-Africa migrations and strategies for enhanced migration management, this book will be a useful resource for scholars and students studying geography, politics, security studies, development studies, African studies and sociology.