African Regional Integration and Pan-Africanism: The Case of African Migrants’ Welfare in Africa

Abstract

This is a conceptual chapter that examines regional integration and the socio-economic gap in African migrants’ welfare and argues that the reintegration of the principles of Pan-Africanism, as espoused by the Lagos Plan of Action, becomes relevant. It looks specifically into one major disjunction between the central principles of Pan-Africanism as the foundational ideology for African regional integration and the economic fast track to integration and development. The chapter argues that contemporary efforts at African regional integration is founded on the ideology of neoliberalism rather than Pan-Africanism. That, insomuch as African regional integration is being pursued via free movement of goods and capital as a means to achieve development and human well-being, without commensurate institutionalization of regional intervention and responsibility for the social welfare of Africans as migrants, the core principle of Pan-Africanism is defeated and obliterated. Irrespective of the dynamic and innovative economic and political platform of African regional integration, the role of regional institutions in providing for the well-being of Africans is politically carved as supportive to either the nation-state or international agents, giving the regional body a passive role in interventions and responsibility that concretely improve the everyday experiences of African migrants in Africa. Thus, the chapter argues that the role of the well-being of African migrants should assume centrality in linking Pan-Africanism to African regional integration.