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In-depth analysis.
Each issue of AfricaFocus Bulletin provides timely analysis and advocacy information on a single topic. The emphasis is on themes of continent-wide or regional relevance, or on selected country-specific topics.
Draws on the best African, international, and U.S. sources.
AfricaFocus Bulletin reposts selected statements, research reports, and conference presentations from a wide range of sources, including nongovernmental organizations, activist groups, international agencies, and governments. Links and contact information for the original sources are always provided, so you can follow up for more details.
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AfricaFocus Bulletin arrives in your e-mail 1 to 3 times a week. At about 6 to 8 pages (20K maximum e-mail size) - it's long enough to provide in-depth analysis, but short enough to skim quickly. Longer reports are included as executive summaries or excerpts only, with clickable links to the full texts. The whole bulletin comes in the body of the e-mail - no attachments to download.
An editor's note puts the information in context.
AfricaFocus Bulletin is edited by William Minter, a writer, researcher, and analyst and the former editor of Africa Policy E-Journal. Each issue of AfricaFocus Bulletin begins with a brief editor's note introducing the material and placing it in the context of current developments. A full archive, with additional news and information resources, is available at http://www.africafocus.org.
Most recent issues on Migration
Note: For all AfricaFocus issues on migration, visit
http://www.africafocus.org/migrexp.php.
March 9, 2020 USA/Africa: Transnational Lives in Kentucky
http://www.africafocus.org/docs20/ken2003.php
Some arrived as refugees, as part of the refugee resettlement process managed by non-profit
agencies for the federal government. Some came to Kentucky from Africa for education, for a
job, or to join other family members. And some moved to Kentucky from other locations in the
United States, in search of smaller communities or better opportunities. Their experiences
were diverse, like immigrants from any other places around the world in any other time in
history. In the 21st century, however, new levels of transnational connections
have made possible ongoing ties enriching the societies of both their new and their old
homes.
November 25, 2019 USA/Africa: At Home in Maine
http://www.africafocus.org/docs19/migr1911.php
“Safiya overcame so many obstacles, I can’t find the words to
describe how much we’re proud of her. Internet trolls could not
stop her, threats could not stop her. She’s the perspective the
city needs. It’s a really big deal, a tremendous transformation for
this city.” - Mo Khalid, speaking of his sister Safiya Khalid on
her election to the Lewiston, Maine City Council on November 6,
2019
September 12, 2019 South Africa: Xenophobia, Deep Roots, Today´s Crisis
http://www.africafocus.org/docs19/sa1909a.php
“In the early years after I got 'home,' it took me some time to
figure out how to respond to the idea that Africa was a place that
began beyond South Africa's borders. I was surprised to learn that
the countries where I had lived -- the ones that had nurtured my
soul in the long years of exile -- were actually no places at all
in the minds of some of my compatriots. … Though they thought
themselves to be very different, it seemed to me that whites and
blacks in South Africa were disappointingly similar when it came to
their views on 'Africa.' … This warped idea of Africa was at the
heart of the idea of South Africa itself. Just as whiteness means
nothing until it is contrasted with blackness as savagery, South
African-ness relies heavily on the construction of Africa as a
place of dysfunction, chaos and violence in order to define itself
as functional, orderly, efficient and civilised.” - Sisonke Msimang
September 12, 2019 South Africa: Spotlight on Gender-based Violence
http://www.africafocus.org/docs19/sa1909b.php
“Our nation is in mourning and pain. Over the past few days, our
country has been deeply traumatised by acts of extreme violence
perpetrated by men against women and children. These acts of
violence have made us doubt the very foundation of our democratic
society, our commitment to human rights and human dignity, to
equality, to peace and to justice. … Violence against women has
become more than a national crisis. It is a crime against our
common humanity.” - President Cyril Ramaphosa, September 5, 2019
April 9, 2019 South Africa: Politicians Scapegoating Immigrants
http://www.africafocus.org/docs19/migr1904b.php
In what became a debate amongst a small group of residents [in
Alexandra], another resident Kabelo Tsotetsi, defended immigrants,
saying they were starting their own businesses and not taking jobs
from South Africans. Tsotetsi said: “Our government doesn’t make
it easy for foreigners to live here, they don’t get help. They
come from countries where they are severely oppressed and they
come here and face the same struggles as us. We are all Africans
fighting for our dignity.” - GroundUp, April 3, 2019
April 9, 2019 Africa: Migration within the Continent
http://www.africafocus.org/docs19/migr1904a.php
Reporting on recent surveys from 34 African countries,
Afrobarometer reports that the average preferred destination for
those seeking to migrate breaks down with 29% opting for a country
in their own region, 7% for elsewhere in Africa, 27% for Europe,
22% for North America, and 13% for some other region. The real
message of this and other reports, however, is not a single
highest-ranked location, but the wide diversity of migration
experiences. Breakdowns by region within Africa and by country
make this lesson even more pointed.
August 27, 2018 Africa: Migration Reports Show Complex Realities
http://www.africafocus.org/docs18/migr1808.php
"In the case of Africa, the very idea that the situation to be faced is a rapidly
increasing “migration crisis” driven by a growing number of young men and women
desperately trying to enter Europe denies the basic facts [such as that]
the vast majority of Africans move within the continent; most Africans move for
reasons of work, study and family; and most Africans living abroad are not from the
poorest sections of their societies of origin." - UN Economic Commission for Africa,
Situation Analysis
February 12, 2018 Sudan: Perilous Crossroads on Refugee Map
http://www.africafocus.org/docs18/sud1802.php
Sudan is one of the central crossroads for African migrant journeys, particularly
for refugees from Eritrea and other counties in the Horn of Africa.
The international media spotlight falls most often on the deadly crossing of the
Mediterranean or slave auctions in the Libyan dessert. But the vulnerability and
deadly perils facing those forced to flee by war, repression, or the struggle for
economic survival extends to a far wider terrain, of which Sudan is one example.
July 31, 2017 Africa: Visa Openness on the Agenda?
http://www.africafocus.org/docs17/migr1707.php
"For now, however, crossing borders remains a painful experience for most
Africans. ... On average, Africans need a visa to travel to 54% of the continent's
countries; it's easier for Americans to travel around Africa than it is for Africans
themselves. So far, the AU has issued its single African passport only to heads of
state and senior AU officials." - The Economist
June 19, 2017 Africa/Europe: Mediterranean Trajectories
http://www.africafocus.org/docs17/migr1706.php
"On July 5, 2016, a 36-year-old Nigerian asylum seeker named Emmanuel Chidi Nnamdi
was beaten to death by Amedeo Mancini, a 39-year-old Italian soccer ultra associated
with a local chapter of the neo-fascist CasaPound Italy political movement. Emmanuel
and his wife Chinyery had fled the violence wreaked by the Boko Haram insurgency in
Nigeria after losing their parents and a two-year-old daughter when their village
church was set on fire. They undertook the dangerous journey through Libya and across
the Mediterranean on a smuggler's boat, during which Chinyery suffered a miscarriage,
finally arriving in Palermo. The harrowing story of Emmanuel and Chinyery is far from
an isolated case, however." - Camilla Hawthorne, "In Search of Black Italia"
March 6, 2017 South Africa: Targeting Immigrants, Again
http://www.africafocus.org/docs17/migr1703.php
"In the post-apartheid South Africa, resurgence of xenophobic
violence is a symptom of the deep leadership deficit. For the fourth
consecutive week now, South Africa is witnessing what many analysts
call a "resurgence" of xenophobic violence in parts of Johannesburg
and Pretoria, the country's capital city. The reality is that this
type of violence is a daily occurrence in the country, although it
does not always get media attention. It has, in fact, become a longstanding
feature in post-apartheid South Africa." - Jean Pierre
Misago, African Centre for Migration and Society, Johannesburg
November 17, 2016 Somalia: Rising Threats to Dadaab Refugees
http://www.africafocus.org/docs16/som1611.php
"The priority of donors and UN agencies should be on improving
conditions in Somalia, not succumbing to political pressure from
Kenya to speed up the pace of returns through monetary inducements.
Kenya faces very real and very serious security challenges. But it
is harmful and wrong to blame the Somali refugee population – people
who themselves fled to Kenya seeking refuge from violence,
persecution, and turmoil at home." - Refugees International
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