The featured image behind the title on the header was created using ChatGPT.
Presenter: Dr Silindile Mlilo
Date: Wednesday, 27 August 2025
Time: 12:30 – 13:45
Venue: ACMS Seminar Room: Room 2163, Solomon Mahlangu House (2nd floor), East Campus, Wits University (directions)
Zoom link: https://wits-za.zoom.us/j/95786624514?pwd=53Oi1h6gHcWY2Q43O0p8ZqzOsOLZXp.1
Register: https://tinyurl.com/4zxkc7s8
Abstract:
This work-in-progress (WiP) paper examines the impact of global migration governance, particularly the European Union’s (EU) externalisation policies, on conflict resolution and peacebuilding in Africa. Following the 2015 so-called “migration crisis,” the EU increasingly framed migration as a security threat, prioritising border militarisation, containment strategies, and partnerships with African states such as Niger, Libya, Egypt, and Tunisia. These policies sought to curtail irregular migration while neglecting root causes, including conflict, poverty, and governance failures, and often exacerbated local tensions between migrants and host communities. Drawing on a critique of Eurocentric narratives, the paper foregrounds African perspectives to highlight the unintended consequences of these policies. It explores how the securitisation of migration governance has contributed to human rights violations, corruption, and the destabilisation of regional mobility frameworks like the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). Furthermore, the externalisation of migration policies has empowered non-state actors, such as smugglers and traffickers, while deepening economic and social inequalities in transit and host countries. The paper argues that these policies undermine regional integration and peacebuilding efforts in Africa, intensifying xenophobia and societal tensions. It calls for the reimagining of migration governance through inclusive, African-led approaches that prioritise human dignity, address root causes of displacement, and foster sustainable conflict resolution and development.
About the researcher/presenter:
Dr Silindile Mlilo is a migration scholar, practitioner, and consultant with extensive experience in research and project management at the intersection of migration and mobility governance, xenophobia and social cohesion, youth, and policy development across Africa and Asia. She is also a part-time content creator, producer, and interviewer, committed to amplifying African voices in migration scholarship and public discourse.
Dr Mlilo is currently a Postdoctoral Researcher and Project Manager at the African Centre for Migration & Society (ACMS), University of the Witwatersrand, where she leads research and monitors xenophobic discrimination in South Africa through the Xenowatch project. She is also the co-founder of Meraki Afrique, a social enterprise focused on advancing regional integration in Africa.
Mlilo holds a Ph.D. in Migration and Displacement from Wits University, an MA in Advanced Development in Social Work through a consortium of European universities, including the University of Lincoln, Aalborg University, Instituto Superior de Ciências Sociais e Políticas (University of Lisbon), and Université Paris Nanterre, an MA in Human Rights and a Bachelor of Social Work both obtained at the University of Fort Hare, respectively.
