09:00-10:00

Registration and coffee

10:00-10:10

Welcome and introductions

10:10-10:40

Key questions emerging from the conference

Professor John Oucho will report to the Expert Meeting on the material presented and issues discussed at the Conference on African Transnational and Return Migration 

10:40-11:40

African and European perceptions of and reactions to African international migration in the context of Euro-African relations

The session will be devoted to consideration of how African countries and institutions on the one hand and their European counterparts on the other perceive and respond to African immigration in Europe. Experts are requested to invoke research, policy and legislative issues of interest to, and likely to help, the two regions cultivate amicable and productive working relations in managing migration.

It is hoped that the Expert Meeting would propose the way to go about these and other issues for the mutual benefit of the two regions.  Attempts will be made to understand the EU-AU frameworks and the extent to which they have been or could be publicised and implemented.

11:40-12:00

Coffee Break

12:00-13:00

Research cooperation, challenges and prospects in and between the two regions

Until now, research on African migration has predominantly been a European-driven agenda to address diverse matters pertaining to (for example) the migration-development nexus; forced migration (in particular refugees); “brain drain/gain”. African researchers, countries and institutions have been relatively passive in the whole exercise. There have been a few significant collaborative initiatives between African institutions and institutions such as the Development Research Centre on Migration, Globalisation and Poverty ( DRC) at the University of Sussex and Oxford University’s  International Migration Institute ( IMI) and Centre on Migration Policy and Society (COMPAS), but they engage in North-to-South interests. Part of the problem lies in the absence of migration institutions in Africa where migration work is fast gaining ground.  The Expert Meeting should consider how best to develop the capacity of African researchers and institutions both to become more self-reliant and to lead South-to-North initiatives.

13:00-14:00

Lunch

14:00-14:45

Training new generations of migration researchers, policy makers and other practitioners

As Africa is lacking a critical mass of well-trained migration researchers, trainers and capacity builders, policy enthusiasts and civil activists, it is important that the Expert Meeting pays attention to training a new generation of stakeholders with prospects for more exciting migration work in the near future. The paradigm shift in migration works requires this if Euro-African partnerships are to thrive to meet the challenges of migration work.  The Expert Meeting should consider training of varied duration geared toward particular beneficiaries and intended to build a network of stakeholders who are keen to share experience and to explore new horizons.

14:45-15:30

Policy dialogue and networking on migration and development

Migration policy development remains a grey area in both Africa and Europe.  Simply stated policy incoherence on migration persists in each of the two regions as home affairs, foreign affairs and sectoral ministries/departments cling to their territorial policy domains without cross-fertilisation of different policies.  The Expert Meeting should consider how policy harmonisation should be achieved in individual counties before regional organisations such as the EU and AU harmonise policies to form the basis for evolving Euro-African policy coherence. With the mushrooming of migration-based institutions in the two regions, it is imperative that networking evolves among stakeholders in either or both regions.

15:30-15:45

Tea break

15:45-16:30

The way forward for African and European countries and institutions

This session will reflect back on the preceding discussions, with the aim of identifying a set of actions which can be proposed for promoting Euro-African research collaboration on the issues identified by the conference and expert meeting.

16:30

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