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Abstract
Although migration has for some time been an important topic in African studies, the ‘politics of migration’ remain relatively under-examined. While there is a substantial body of literature on migration and economic development, we know much less about the impact of migration on other state-building processes. The upsurge of autochthony discourses throughout much of Africa is a recent phenomenon and an alarming trend that reveals the increased politicisation of migration and the challenge these discourses pose to state-building. This article uses Côte d'Ivoire as a case study to shed light on the complex relationship between migration and state-building. It also provides a fresh perspective on a new chapter in Ivoirian politics as it re-examines this relationship in light of the recent political developments following the 2010 elections. In so doing, it provides new insights into the enduring nature of autochthony, highlighting the contemporary challenges that these discourses pose for both migrants and state-building.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank Peter Geschiere and J. Andrew Grant for their helpful comments on this article. I would also like to thank the participants at the Canadian Association of African Studies Annual Conference in Ottawa (May 2010) and the Canadian Association for Refugee and Forced Migration Studies Annual Conference in Hamilton (May 2010) for their questions and suggestions on preliminary versions of the article. Finally, this article has also benefited from the insightful suggestions of the anonymous reviewers of the Journal of Contemporary African Studies. I gratefully acknowledge the financial support from the Africa Initiative Program, the Ethnicity and Democratic Governance Project, the International Development Research Centre, Queen's University, and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
Notes
1. In this article I use the term ‘Africa’ to refer to sub-Saharan Africa. Although migration is indeed a politicised issue in North Africa, the focus here is on the somewhat different dynamics throughout sub-Saharan Africa.
2. For an examination into the relationship between migration and violent conflict using insights from Côte d'Ivoire and other African countries, see Grant, Mitchell and Nyame (2011) and Mitchell (Citation2011).
3. Freeman (2005, 117) provides an excellent overview of the ‘failure’ of political science to take migration seriously as a topic of inquiry. In summarising his overview, he offers the following critique: ‘immigration has been mostly ignored by the best minds in political science … the literature tends to be a-theoretical and descriptive, to consist of ad hoc case studies that are difficult to aggregate, and to display a strong normative content with a tendency toward advocacy and celebration rather than rigorous analysis’.
4. In her examination of migration in West Africa, Peil (Citation1971, 207) notes another important transformation from the pre-colonial to colonial period, arguing that as movements were larger and generally shorter during the colonial period, migrants ‘made no effort to fit in with the local population’. Peil argues that failure to learn the local language, inter-marry and integrate more generally contributed to heightening divisions between hosts and migrants.
5. It is important to note that while South Africa received vast numbers of labour migrants during this period, the entire sub-region of southern Africa was involved in not only sending but also in receiving labour migrants. See Paton (Citation1995) for an excellent analysis of these migration dynamics.
6. Manby (Citation2009) provides a detailed analysis of the ongoing ‘struggles for citizenship in Africa’.
7. Manby (Citation2009) and Whitaker (Citation2005) provide excellent accounts of a flagrant example of the contested issue of ‘who can run for office’. Kenneth Kaunda, the former President of Zambia, was prevented from running in national elections in 1996 because he no longer met the requisite citizenship criteria due to the recent changes to Zambia's constitution by then President, Frederick Chiluba.
8. In a recent book on natural resources and conflict in Africa, Aloa (Citation2007) emphatically argues that of all of Africa's ‘resources’ land is indeed the most important and principal source of conflict.
9. In a more recent article, Sara Berry (Citation2009) explores how rather than alleviating social and political conflict, neoliberal policy interventions have instead resulted in increased instances of conflict over land in West Africa.
10. See Chauveau and Richards (Citation2008) for an excellent overview of the tutorat.
11. Chauveau (2000: 106––7) provides yet another overview of the tutorat while noting the dynamic nature of this institution. Chauveau carefully notes that the relationship between the ‘tutor’ and the ‘client’ was largely influenced by changes in the political economy of the Ivoirian cocoa sector, such as increasing land scarcity in the cocoa regions.
12. The Mossi are the largest ethnic group in Burkina Faso, accounting for approximately 40% of the total population, and constitute one of the largest migrant groups in the cocoa growing and other regions of Côte d'Ivoire.
13. According to a UN Population Fund estimate, Côte d'Ivoire's civil war resulted in the internal displacement of more than one million people, with approximately 80% of those taking up residence in Abidjan (Chirot Citation2006, 72).
14. For a detailed examination of the post-election violence in these regions by both pro-Ouattara and pro-Gbagbo forces, see Human Rights Watch (Citation2011a, Citation2011b).
15. According to the UNHCR (2011d), most of the internally displaced were in the west (132,188), while many others were concentrated in the north (62,676) and in Abidjan (55,912).
16. It is important to note that autochthonous populations have also been the victim of violent attacks throughout the cocoa regions. For instance, a recent report by International Crisis Group (2011, 6) cites the role of the dozos – traditional hunters that have supported the rebels since 2002 – as a serious threat to the safety of displaced autochthons that may wish to return to their homelands. The dozos are well armed and have already allegedly been involved in the massacre of indigenous populations both during the post-election crisis and in previous clashes throughout the last decade.
17. This is one of the main economic-related recommendations identified in a recent report by International Crisis Group (ICG). According to ICG (2011, iii), the Ivoirian government must provide urgent support to displaced persons, especially those in the western regions, in order to avoid indefinite residence in camps.
18. Recognising the crucial role of the Burkinabe population in the Ivoirian economy, Ouattara took little time to extend an invitation to those Burkinabes that had fled Côte d'Ivoire during the crisis. On 16 May 2011 Ouattara (2011) stated that ‘Every single Burkinabe should consider himself at home in Ivory Coast’.
19. Author's translation from the original in French.
20. Arnaut's (Citation2008) work on ‘scaling’ and autochthony provides some interesting insights into the linkages between the local and the global.
21. I thank Peter Geschiere for pointing this out in an earlier version of this article.
22. Manby's (Citation2009) recent book is the obvious exception as she provides a comprehensive examination of citizenship laws in Africa.