Contemporary African migration: An introduction

This handbook presents a comprehensive overview of African migration within and outside of the continent from historical, contemporary, and future perspectives. The handbook outlines five ways to understand contemporary African migration sui generis further and to combat the Eurocentric bias that has plagued migration research thus far. First, in order to de-centre and re-centre the study of African migration, we must first recognise the inadequacy of methodological nationalism in social sciences, which assumes Western-centric epistemology and nation-states as starting points for empirical studies on international migration. Second, to comprehend contemporary African migration, it is necessary to thoroughly understand the continent's history, including slavery, colonialism, and imperialism, and the degree to which historical factors contributed to African underdevelopment and shaped its culture, religion, and mobility patterns. Third, the handbook situates the migration and mobilities of Africans within a racialised and globalised capitalism, which remains rooted in colonial hierarchies between white Europeans and the “other”, including black Africans. Fourth, we pay particular attention to the ways in which post-colonial African states, which are historically contingent social formations, enable, manage, and regulate migration in various ways. Lastly, the handbook places a high level of importance on the human agency of Africans and does not see migrations and mobilities as primarily the result of larger structural forces but rather as the result of processes of development and social transformation that have resulted in increased capabilities and aspirations on the part of Africans