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Leonard Ncube, [email protected]

THE negative portrayal of migration in Western media needs to be challenged, and the African media can play a crucial role in dispelling myths and promoting positive stories. 

While African countries face challenges in managing migration, promoting ethical recruitment and bilateral labour migration agreements are important steps. 

The International Labour Organisation reports that international migrant workers globally rose by three percent between 2017 and 2022 to 169 million, with many in sectors such as agriculture, health, domestic work, construction, cruise ship, education and engineering. 

The African Union Commission is conducting a migration simulation training for journalists and communication specialists from cross the continent in Victoria Falls to raise awareness of these issues and to introduce a training manual on the subject.

The workshop focusing on myths and reality of migration in Africa started on Monday and ends on Friday. 

It was organised within the framework of the AU Migration Governance Training Programme and is supported by the AU-EU Continent-to-Continent Migration and Mobility Dialogue, which is implemented by the International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD), within the wider European Union funded Migration and Mobility Dialogue (MMD) Support Programme. 

Zimbabwe Immigration chief director, Ms Respect Gono, who was the guest speaker, expressed concern over negative reporting by some sections of the media in some countries, which she said fuels xenophobia and generates anti-immigrant laws and policies. 

“The training workshop has come at a time when African migration is continuously suffering from negative reportage, misrepresentation, exaggeration, stereotyping and amplification of its trends, direction and magnitude resulting in the distortion of the truth about migration,” she said. 

“African migration is usually projected as massive movement happening in irregular fashion and directed towards Europe; narratives that have been debunked by statistics.”

Ms Gono said to enhance migration governance, Zimbabwe launched the National Migration Policy with focus on using accurate data to inform migration related decisions.

The policy complements other policies such as the National Labour Migration Policy and the Zimbabwe Diaspora Policy. 

Ms Gono referenced negative coverage in the media on the so called migration crisis in the central Mediterranean region in 2015 and the response it attracted from European countries. 

She expressed concern about reports on the 443 unaccompanied children who were being “trafficked” to South Africa in December 2023 saying these were mere cases of family re-unifications and not trafficking as was reported.

She also said the reports about 27 Ethiopian migrants found abandoned in Zambia shortly after the discovery of 30 Ethiopian migrants’ bodies in a mass grave in Malawi were misrepresented. 

“The two incidents were reported as cases of trafficking in persons, yet in actual fact they were cases of smuggling of persons and/or missing migrants along the southern route,” said Ms                            Gono. 

“It’s important to highlight that media framing has potential to influence people’s perceptions, to shape people’s attitudes and to generate negative public opinions. 

“This often compels and elicits impulsive responses from authorities and policymakers. These usually come in the form of anti-immigrant laws and policies that will negatively impact migration governance.

“It’s unfortunate that certain sections of the media tend to dwell more on the negative aspects of migration at the expense of benefits that accrue from migration. 

“It is against this background that the need for training of this nature cannot be overemphasised. We need to change the narrative and amplify the success stories of migration more than the challenges associated with it.”

Ms Gono said well-managed migration can bring many benefits, including skills transfer, technology transfer and cultural diversity.

She urged the African media to focus on success stories and avoid treating migrants as a homogenous group with specific needs.

She said contemporary migration includes, among others, tourists, investors, students, economic/labour migrants, asylum seekers, climate migrants, refugees, victims of trafficking and smuggled migrants who have different specific needs. 

“In fact, migration is a developmental reality that needs to be managed rather than a challenge that needs to be solved,” she said.

“If it is well managed, migration can be beneficial to both sending and receiving communities/countries.

“I challenge you to critically review the manual so that it is fit for purpose, as it will guide future generations in re-writing the African migration story,” said Ms Gono.

Africa has many legal instruments and policies to guide migration management, which include the 2006 AU Migration Policy Framework for Africa (MPFA).

In 2016, the AUC embarked on an evaluation of the 2006 MPFA and one of the findings was that there is a gap between countries’ commitment and actual technical capacity remains a challenge. — @ncubeleon