Paper short abstract:

This is a conceptual paper that examines Africa regional integration from a migrant welfare perspective based on a pan-African ideology.

Paper long abstract:

This is a conceptual paper that examines Africa regional integration from a migrant welfare perspective based on a pan-African ideology. It takes political provision for African migrant welfare as one major disjunction between the central principles of pan-Africanism as a foundational ideology for African regional integration, and a neoliberal economic fast track to regional integration and development.

Contemporary African migrants experience in African cities is increasingly being shaped by xenophobic attacks and other forms of vulnerability, especially at the informal level. Extraordinarily, in the same context of the abuse of certain African migrants, giant economic steps are being taken for African regional integration. For example, the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AFCFTA), which was signed on March 21, 2018. Irrespective of the dynamic and innovative economic and political platform of African regional integration, the role of regional institution in providing for the wellbeing of Africans is politically carved as supportive to either the nation-state or international agents, giving regional body a passive role in interventions and responsibility that concretely improve the everyday experiences of African migrants in Africa. Thus, the paper argues that the vulnerability of African migrants is reproduced as collateral damage of the regional integration project. This is because there is no regional institution with the responsibility to provide substantive social welfare for African migrants during periods of vulnerability in the host country. In this scenario, the interest of ordinary African migrants is at stake in the whole enchilada of Africa regional integration.