Contested Mobility Norms in Africa: Reconciling Visions, Policies and Practice

Contested Mobility Norms in Africa 4/ 86 through a set of sub-norm statements that look at the place of migration in the process of development, the political economy of migration, the instrumentalisation of migration in geopolitics and the leveraging of aid by powerful countries to push for return migration under the rubric of development. [...] In addition to the above frameworks, the 2018 Protocol to the Abuja Treaty contains the right to the free movement of persons, the right of residence and the right of establishment. [...] Although the founding treaty of the OAU did not mention migration and mobility explicitly, the Abuja Treaty of 1991 emphasised the important role of mobility in improving development outcomes for the continent and improving the livelihoods of African citizens.[33] These ideas are further encapsulated in the Agenda 2063 of the AU, which restates the need to address intra-continental mobility, prote. [...] The Abuja Treaty, the BIAT initiative and Agenda 2063[45] set the groundwork for the negotiation of the agreement that established AfCFTA agreement) and the Protocol to the Abuja Treaty relating to Free Movement of Persons, Right of Residence and Right of Estab- lishment (AU-FMP). [...] The AU and the Citizens and Diaspora Directorate within the AU, which is in charge of diaspora relations, define the diaspora as «peoples of African origin living outside the continent, irrespective of their citizenship and nationality and who are willing to contribute to the development of the continent and building of the African Union».[57] According to the AU-FMP, diaspora remittances help as.