Document Type

Migration Policy Series

Publication Date

2025

Department

Balsillie School of International Affairs

Abstract

In Africa, various international organizations have promoted “mixed migration” as a new governance challenge requiring innovative policy responses. The narrative, which has been repurposed from discussions on African migration to Europe to include intra-African movements, positions migration flows as primarily irregular, organized and driven by smugglers, and requiring tight control by states. This report shows that textual and cartographic representations of the so-called Southern Route are a form of cartopolitics, constructing migration as a permanent flow of irregular migrants from a singular origin toward a common destination. By portraying migration as solely a function of smuggling and coercion, the Southern Route narrative obscures the broader context within which migrants decide on their journeys. It also ignores the role of state officials in profiting from migration. By vesting authority in state-centric security responses, the mixed-migration framework not only marginalizes the experiences of migrants but also erodes alternative understandings of mobility and integration in Africa. This report exposes the Southern Route narrative as a constructed and politically motivated state-centred instrument that serves to justify restrictive migration policies, rather than reflecting the realities of African mobility. The mythologies of mixed migration reinforce state control while ignoring the historical and structural drivers of migration. Moving beyond the Southern Route narrative requires re-centring African agency, recognizing migration as an integral part of continental development, and resisting simplistic crisis narratives that perpetuate exclusion and securitization.

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