Of the five African sub-regions, southern Africa has
been the subject of a sustained study of international
migration over the last half century. In the heyday
of apartheid, South Africa made deliberate efforts to
constantly attract and control immigration, benefiting
from research undertaken by the Human Sciences
Research Council (HSRC), as well as from that
commissioned by the International Labour Organisation
(ILO) on so-called ‘black migration’ to the country
(Bohning 1981). Since 1997, the country has been the
focal point of research by the Southern
African Migration Project (SAMP), whose
study now covers all the neighbouring
countries. The HSRC still reigns as the
quasi-government arm of research on,
among others, migration.
As a geo-political cum economic entity,
the sub-region has become best known
by its regional integration flagship,
the Southern African Development
Community (SADC), which includes
Angola and the Democratic Republic of
the Congo (DRC) in central Africa and
Tanzania in eastern Africa. The SADC’s
14 member states have diverse historical
backgrounds, development levels and economic and
political stages of evolution that occasionally constrain
regional integration and have in the past caused them
to drift apart while attempting to realise the regional
dream: the facilitation of movement of persons within
the SADC region. The 14 member states are Angola,
Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique,
Namibia, South Africa, Seychelles, Swaziland, Tanzania,
Zambia, Zimbabwe and the DRC. The SADC’s sharing
Tanzania with the East African Community (EAC)
and certain member states (Mauritius, Swaziland,
Zambia, Zimbabwe and the DRC) with the Common
Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA)
pits it against competitive counterparts and tests
member states’ commitment to various issues in
regional integration. As international migration lies at
the core of regional integration in all African regional
economic communities (RECs), its importance to the
SADC cannot be overemphasised.
As an overview, this paper highlights the migration
situation in southern Africa without delving into
details that appear in the growing body of literature
on the subject. It examines voluntary and forced
international migration against the backdrop of
migration management initiatives launched in the
interest of SADC member states after their eventual
adoption of the Draft Protocol on Facilitation of
Movement of Persons. First, the paper discusses the
typology of international migration in
southern Africa, giving examples of each
in countries of the sub-region to provide
a sweeping perspective of voluntary
and forced migration. The typology of
international migration in southern Africa
suggests the existence of both voluntary
and forced movements, as well the more
elusive undocumented migration on
which reliable data are lacking. Labour
migration and refugees respectively best
represent voluntary and forced migration.
Second, the paper succinctly discusses
data requirements and shortcomings and
underlines the need to assemble reliable
data for analyses; the latter are meant to
inform migration management initiatives, for instance
those already championed by the Migration Dialogue
in Southern Africa (MIDSA). Third, the paper highlights
the current situation of international migration in the
sub-region and analyses particular types of migration in
each country. The analysis indicates that South Africa,
Botswana and Namibia are the favoured countries
of destination, a fact that has aroused xenophobia
among their citizens and that has been an obstacle to
the adoption of the Draft Protocol on the Facilitation
of Movement of Persons in the SADC region. The
latest development is that the minimum number of
nine member states has signed the document, and a
few countries are in the process of ratifying it. Against
the backdrop of data and situation analysis, the paper
explores the significance of the implementation of the
SADC protocol for member states as they wait to realise the goal of regional integration. The paper concludes
that linking migration patterns to harmonised legislation
and policies could facilitate a smooth implementation
of the SADC protocol.