Dialogue in divergence : the impact of EU migration policy on West African integration: the cases of Nigeria, Mali, and Niger

This study analyses some aspects of the impact of European Union migration policies on ECOWAS, the West African regional economic integration project, and on the migration policies of three countries in the region, Nigeria, Mali, and Niger. The study focuses in particular on the divergent perceptions of the issue in Europe and West Africa. While, from the point of view of decision-makers in Europe, migration from Sub-Saharan Africa has grown since the early 2000s from a problem into a crisis, in West Africa, it is seen as a new phase in the region’s difficult history of socio-economic development. The study revisits the ways in which the EU’s relations with the region were, and still are shaped by the migration issue; reviews and discusses the migration policies of ECOWAS in context; analyses the parameters of the migration issue area in Nigeria and Mali, emphasising in particular the historical perspective in which they make sense; discusses the ways in which the EU has sought to influence the policies of these countries in this connection; examines the peculiar case of Niger, a ‘transit country’ transformed into an immigration officer for the EU; and reviews and discusses the implications for the socio-economic progress of the region and of these three countries. In conclusion, the study emphasises that the EU and West African states have a divergent understanding of what is at stake, with the result that dialogue devolves into ineffective initiatives that reflect both the lack of coherence and the power – in terms of resources – of the EU position. Recommended measures are suggested that may help to establish the balance necessary for dialogue and provide a way out of a questionable – or non-existent - strategy.