In 2020, South Africa was estimated to host the highest number of international migrants in the sub-region.

While migration to South Africa has primarily been driven by the pursuit of employment opportunities, it also reflected a trend towards fewer restrictions and inclusiveness for post-1994 migration policies. This made South Africa a desirable destination for immigrants.

For instance, post-apartheid migration legislation, the 1998 Refugees Act, enacted in 2000, guaranteed asylum seekers fundamental socioeconomic rights such as health and education services and the right to work for asylum seekers. These are rights that most immigrants seek.

Those on the progressive side of migration policy tend to favour equal rights for locals and migrants and an immigration policy that is relatively open and non-selective. A trend towards restrictive immigration policies has emerged in the region largely in response to the need to address rising unemployment.

South Africa’s amendments to its Refugee Act in 2008, 2011 and 2017 have seen it move towards restricting refugee rights to work and curtailing civil liberties. These developments signify South Africa’s abandonment of its internationalist perspective consequently moving South Africa into isolation on the continent.

Similarly, most African countries have often favoured an encampment refugee policy wherein refugees, and asylum seekers are sent to camps. As such, refugees are not allowed to integrate, find employment or enjoy civil liberties. South Africa’s shifting stance on immigration from a once-progressive immigration regime has regressed like the rest of the continent.

Equally, other SADC countries such as Zimbabwe and Botswana have restricted business activities for foreigners in sectors such as transport (passenger buses, taxis and car hire services), retailing, wholesaling, hair salons, advertising agencies, estate agencies, grain milling, bakeries, tobacco grading and packaging and artisanal mining. While such developments have the objective of addressing unemployment, they pose a challenge to the goal of facilitating a people-to-people-centred integration.

The significant rewards of immigration in the region will be realised if SADC countries’ immigration reform is seen as an economic opportunity to be seized rather than an enforcement problem to be solved.

Towards regional integration

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development recognises that migration is a powerful driver of sustainable development for migrants and their communities. It brings significant benefits in the form of skills, strengthening the labour force, investment and cultural diversity, and improving the lives of communities in their countries of origin through the transfer of skills and financial resources.

The benefits of migration can be seen from the perspective of what migrants can bring to any given territory. Also, they benefit sending countries in the form of payment of remittances.

Equally, the Africa Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) acknowledges that the free movement of goods, services, capital and people is integral towards the continent’s economic integration.

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According to the World Bank, the AfCFTA can bring higher-paid, better-quality jobs, with women seeing the most significant wage gains. This ensures a people-to-people integration which will benefit ordinary citizens. In addition, there needs to be harmonisation between national economic policies to limit restrictions on immigration policies.

When migration is poorly governed, it can negatively impact development. For instance, migrants can be put at risk, and communities can come under strain. Thus, migration is a multi-dimensional reality that cannot be addressed by one government and policy sector alone.

The reality is that a regional approach to migration governance in SADC must ensure that migration and migrants’ needs are considered across all policy areas, laws and regulations, from health to education, fiscal policies to trade. By doing so, it will be possible to achieve sustainable development goals where there will be significant economic benefits from adopting progressive immigration policies.

Reforming the unskilled and high-skilled immigration system

There is a particular worry about the unauthorised emigration of low-skilled or unskilled labour from the SADC region. The White Paper on International Migration for South Africa stated that this emigration threatens the nation’s economic stability and sovereignty. Tension exists between adopting a progressive immigration policy and addressing local unemployment issues. This dilemma should not be avoided.

The African Union has the Free Movement Protocol and the Migration Policy Framework at the continental level. Governments must have the political will to allow for the free movements of African people on the African continent.

The recent agreement by Botswana and Namibia to abolish the use of passports and instead use identity cards (ID) at their port of entry is a move in the right direction to remove restrictions. However, it must be acknowledged that unequal economic development and opportunities make the ideal of a borderless Africa a challenge.

Free movement of goods and services makes up three-quarters of intra-EU trade, generating around a quarter of EU GDP and over 90% of new jobs in Europe. This was possible because of the harmonisation of national economic policies and political approaches to governance to create an integrated Europe. Policy consideration by SADC countries should take note of the following:

• SADC countries to remove barriers to movement and allow participation of foreigners in local low-skilled sectors. Free movement of people will facilitate a people-to-people-centred development and benefit especially informal cross-border traders (ICBT) — mostly women — and facilitate women empowerment in line with the Sustainable Development Goals; and
•  Regional central biometric system for citizens to address issues concerning crime by undocumented nationals and the issue of illegality. This will aid in addressing crime, especially as that has often been blamed on untraceable undocumented immigrants.

SADC countries’ economies have much to gain from progressive immigration policies. But the most significant rewards will only be realised if SADC countries approach immigration as an economic opportunity to be seized rather than an enforcement problem to be solved.

Harmonisation of SADC countries’ national economic policies that deal comprehensively with the immigration issue by being unrestrictive and more people-to-people centred will strengthen SADC’s economies and increase the region’s prosperity. DM

Dr Tinashe Sithole is a visiting research fellow in the Department of Politics and International Relations, University of Johannesburg (UJ). He is also a researcher at UJ’s Institute for Pan-African Thought and Conversation.