On the occasion of our Progressive Migration Group Conference, FEPS Head of Communications Ainara Bascuñana interviews Ottilia Maunganidze, lawyer and Head of Special Projects in the office of the Executive Director at the Institute of Security Studies, based in South Africa, and member of the Progressive Migration Group. Ottilia comments the New Pact on Migration and Asylum from the viewpoint of African countries and the pressing need to abandon the current stagnant and toxic narratives on migration that portray migration as a threat when it is a major driver of development and prosperity. 

Migration remains a central yet contested issue in AU-EU relations. While the African Union views migration as a potential driver of development, integration, and mobility rights, the EU prioritises security, control, and returns. 

This policy brief calls for pragmatic collaboration that bridges divergences. By fostering rights-based, development-orientated governance, migration can turn from a point of friction into a shared opportunity for progress.

Return policies have become the cornerstone of AU-EU relations. But despite large investments, enforcement rates remain low, while conditionality on aid or visas to achieve return agreements undermines trust, and weakens human rights protections.

This policy brief argues for a recalibration of AU-EU migration governance from coercion toward cooperation. Rights and accountability must be embedded at its core, as well as investment in regularisation, functional reintegration support and labour mobility pathways.

Multilateralism is increasingly threatened by rising nationalism, geopolitical tensions, and shrinking commitments to cooperation. AU-EU migration governance has since drifted from a shared development priority towards a highly politicised, securitised battleground, resulting in weakened global conventions, aid and budget cuts and eroding trust in global frameworks.

This policy brief calls for a reset: multilateralism must be revitalised through renewed commitments, inclusive governance, and sustainable financing.

Migration is a major driver of development and prosperity. According to the World Bank, international remittances to lowand middle-income countries worldwide reached $656 billion in 2023 – more than direct foreign investment and far more than official development assistance to those countries. However, remittances are only one of the development benefits that migration brings. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development also recognises migration as a powerful driver of sustainable development because migration benefits not only migrants and host countries, but also their communities – through social, technological and skills transfers, as well as through investment and cultural diversity. The Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration aligns with the 2030 Agenda by emphasising the multi-dimensional nature of migration and the need for a comprehensive approach to it that involves all policy areas.

This policy brief is centred around remittances – defined by the International Monetary Fund as money migrants send home, which represents part of their income and earnings. While remittances may be in the form of either cash or goods to support their families and may be sent through various channels (such as digital services, post office and money operators), official statistics often do not entirely capture these flows and their broad scope, , which can also entail skills and knowledge transfers, as well as social and cultural exchange. The official reference limits remittances to two items in the balance of payments framework: personal transfers and compensation of employees. Furthermore, the limited tracking and collection of remittance data among countries impacts regional and global reporting.

European Union labour markets increasingly need non-EU workers to fill the labour shortages that exist at all skill levels across the EU. Yet hostile attitudes in EU countries towards immigration stand in the way of addressing domestic shortages with non-EU workers. As for Africa, labour migration to the EU can play a key role in Africa's development, provided that policies are designed with African interests in mind.

This policy brief, after unpacking some of these complexities of Africa-EU labour migration, provides recommendations on how to improve labour migration policy for both parties. It calls for better communication on the need for labour migration to the EU, better integration policy and labour migration agreements that are developed in the interests of African countries.

Migration policymakers often desire to use development cooperation to manage migration, while development experts insist that development policy should be first and foremost about the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). 

This policy brief concludes that the EU's current migration and asylum policies are at odds with the SDGs and the EU’s Aid Effectiveness Agenda. The policy brief posits that a progressive migration policy could even argue for the instrumentalisation of migration policy for development goals: promoting fair and well-regulated migration arrangements to foster economic and social development.

In September 2020, the European Commission presented a 'New Pact on Migration and Asylum'. The proposal consists of an intricate and complicated set of legislation that, at least in theory, should reform the EU's current asylum and migration policy, and ensure a holistic approach to migration management.

The European legislators adopted the 'new' Pact in May 2024. The Pact has been criticised by many observers, who regard it, beyond the dominant rhetoric that speaks of reform, as 'old wine in a new bottle'. The Pact, in fact, insists on the existing EU strategy, focused on curtailing 'irregular migration' and on the securitisation of migration. Such a regressive approach does not comply with human rights standards and worsens migrants' vulnerabilities. This policy brief argues that only a negotiated strategy between Africa and Europe that reflects a common understanding of migration, mobility and development can eventually benefit both continents.

Migration policy discourses within the European Union have favoured a trend towards the so-called externalisation of migration policies, aimed, at least theoretically, to mitigate 'irregular migration'. African countries have been a key target of this approach. EU narratives around externalisation are centred on the large and 'dangerous' flows of African migrants arriving by sea, and ignore the stories of the thousands of asylum seekers stuck in border countries in inhumane conditions or of the millions of Africans who prefer to migrate within their continent for trade and work purposes.

This policy brief highlights the political, economic and social transformations caused by European externalisation policies within African states. The EU and its Member States – using their political and economic leverage – are making deals with African states, urging them to replace their existing free movement protocols with the EU's requirement to stop migration flows. The emphasis on restricting migration to Europe combined with the shortage of legal migratory pathways is contributing to prolonged displacement in border towns and camps where asylum seekers and refugees suffer deprivation and fall prey to smugglers and traffickers.