Paper short abstract:

The paper addresses the way in which migration between Sub-Sahara-Africa and Europe is conceptualised from the point of view of German development cooperation. Based on empirical research in Ghana and Mali, it analyses the different development visions of the actors involved.

Paper long abstract:

The paper addresses the way in which migration in the space between Sub-Sahara-Africa and Europe is conceptualised from the point of view of German development cooperation. In spite of the growing interest in the link between migration and development, German development cooperation has so far been reluctant to get fully engaged in this discussion. Existing return programmes and pilot projects involving African diaspora organisations indicate a way to deal with the issue, but so far this approach has not been systematically mainstreamed into the broader country strategies. Moreover the agenda of German development cooperation is not homogeneous and diverging positions illustrate a quite tense relation between restrictive immigration politics and the recognition of migration as a development potential.

The proposed paper is based on ongoing research for a study commissioned by the German Ministry for development cooperation, including fieldwork in Ghana and Mali. It focuses on the interface between German development agencies and local actors, analysing the way how specific aspects of migration dynamics (gendered, age-related, and regionally specific pattern) and their supposed root causes are articulated and linked to development processes. With respect to the empirical case studies it is argued that the various ways to approach and understand migration reflect different visions of development. This is shown by contrasting examples from Ghana and Mali, which illustrate different patterns of mobility. The examples indicate that the relation between migration and development is highly ambiguous - it has to be contextualised in order to understand its dynamics.

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