Paper short abstract:

Studies on youth migration precisely in the world and specifically Africa are often carried out at the individual and structural levels more from a social and economic background. However, an analysis of the causes of migration grounds it in the specific feature of man to desire to know.

Paper long abstract:

Rethinking the epistemic foundation of migration

Peter ONI (PhD)

University of Lagos (Nigeria)

Faculty of Arts

Department of Philosophy

Tel. (+234) 8033486140; (+234) 9067381104

Email: onipeter@hotmail.com

pioni@unilag.edu.ng

Abstract

Studies on migration precisely of youth in the world and specifically Africa are often approached at the individual and structural levels from a cultural, social, economic political and environmental background. However, an in-depth analysis of the origin and causes of migration reveals other factors related to the nature of man and his specific feature to desire to know himself and the world. In fact, this cardinal human feature is generally ignored for more celebrated factors such as the economic and the environmental. Indeed, human movement is best understood when it is explained through the prism of the desiring being of man. It is against this background that this paper rethinks through an existential phenomenological approach, the epistemic foundation of migration. It argues that migration is fundamentally human as the nature of man is to desire what is not yet there. It also establishes through the network theory that youth migration may not stop in Africa until a sound programme is put in place to ground youth networking and knowledge acquisition.

Key Words: Africa, epistemic, knowledge, youth migration, youth networking.