Central Sahel: The Invisibility of an Intra-African Migration Regime?

Abstract

Having remained on the sidelines of research on international migrations, the central Sahel is nevertheless characterized by longstanding intra-African and circular movements. Rooted in colonial history, these circular migrations have been consolidated and institutionalized in the context of recurring environmental crises since the 1960s. Despite their relative invisibility in both the academic and public spheres, different migratory regimes are taking shape and gaining autonomy: the first, the oldest, oriented towards the Gulf of Guinea and the ECOWAS region, and the second, directed towards Algeria and Libya. The movement of West African nationals traveling to Libya, combined with the arrival of international actors advocating for “international migration governance”, has contributed to the imposition of the notion of transit as a political and normative framework for interpreting one of these migratory regimes. While migration thus becomes visible in the political sphere, it does not offset the invisibility of intra-African migrations.