Paper long abstract:

This paper critically examines attempts at regional integration in West Africa and how these attempts are both aided and frustrated by the externalised migration management interests of the European Union. The paper will draw on the example of the EU-Niger agreement to demonstrate how European externalisation policies indirectly contribute to limiting free movement within the West African sub-Region. The paper argues that the EU's bilateral externalisation policy with Niger, manifests in the provision of finance and entrusting the country with the responsibility of policing EU's external territory against movement by fellow ECOWAS citizens, is reminiscent of indirect rule practices under colonial rule in Africa. We show that the receipt of financial assistance from the EU and the attendant quid pro quo obligation on Niger to disrupt the migration journeys of fellow West Africans puts Niger in jeopardy of her regional legal commitments as a signatory to the ECOWAS Free Movement Protocol. In effect, in their attempt to restrict movement to the West, European Union's migration policies towards Africa have further contributed to restricting migration within the African context, thereby serving to undermine the goal of free movement protocols that seek to promote intraregional mobility and socio-economic development in West Africa.