Migration, Youth, and Land in West Africa: Making the Connections Work for Inclusive Development

Abstract

This paper presents the results of a short-term research project conducted in 2017/2018 on the various ways in which migration and land dynamics in West Africa are intertwined. Contrary to much conventional (policy) thinking in the European Union (EU) today, our point of departure is not that migration is the problem to be solved – nor that (access to) land is the straightforward means to discouraging migration. Drawing on local case studies in four West African countries, this research aims to shed light on the various relationships between migration and land, and to analyze to what extent they may contribute to or obstruct (local) inclusive and sustainable development in Mali, Senegal, Burkina Faso, and Benin. In doing so, we aim to offer food for thought concerning possible ways for making the connection between migration and land more fruitful and productive for as many people as possible, especially in relation to the opportunities and constraints facing different categories of West African youth.

Land Governance from a Mobilities Perspective

“…Kaag, Baltissen, Steel, and Lodder [36] (in this special issue) put a like-minded question to the forefront of their analysis of migration and land dynamics across rural, peri-urban, and urban regions of West Africa by asking to what extent these may contribute to or hinder inclusive and sustainable development with specific focus on the perspective of youths. This research, carried out through case study work in Mali, Senegal, Burkina Faso, and Benin, sheds light onto the various factors that bring people to move.…”

“…. ] in which customary arrangements offer security, but also a less flexible power framework [while] urbanization contributes to more opportunities for new economic elites, including migrants, but also to increasing inequality between old and new elites and poorer segments of the population" [36] (p. 8). Migration processes have been and are an indispensable element in many local and translocal/transnational livelihoods in the West African region, processes in which land gains multiple, sometimes contested, meanings and hence value appreciations.…”

Between Promising Advances and Deepening Concerns: A Bottom-Up Review of Trends in Land Governance 2015–2018

“…New questions are being asked about the values that rural people attach to land, landscape, and small-scale farming in this changing context. 29 The ways in which land disputes are playing out affect different land users in different ways. In some countries, for example, pastoral communities have been hit by an increasing number of land conflicts, the loss and fragmentation of grazing land, barriers to mobility, and the breakdown of customary institutions.…”

“…28 Contribution by the NES Nepal. 29 Contribution by Fundapaz, Argentina. 30 Contribution by the Rangelands Initiative, global.…”

“…Questions related to the way in which "customary" land tenure systems have been changing in response to integration into commercial relations [3,11], and how evolving international legal frameworks are reconfiguring land relations from local to global levels [25][26][27], were also barely mentioned. The fuller range of complex relations between land governance and climate change [28], as well as between land governance and labor and migration patterns [29,30], also received relatively little attention.…”