Date

2025/8/21 (Thu)12:40-14:10（JST）

Field

Migration, human security

Venue / Event Format

Exhibition Hall / Hybrid (In-person and Online)

Co-Host

Background

Human security denotes a reasonably acceptable guarantee for the survival, well-being, and dignity of a human being. When they feel insecure or seek better opportunities, sub-Saharan Africans flee their homes, often setting on an arduous journey, and becoming migrants. Yet the majority of them do not migrate to Europe or North America but within sub-Saharan Africa itself. According to International Migrant Stock 2024, the figure for intra-sub-Saharan African migrants was more than four times that of migrants to Europe and more than nine times that to North America (*). In this Thematic Event, experts from sub-Sahara Africa, Japan and international organizations will examine the challenges and opportunities of sub-Saharan African migrants from the point of view of human security.

*United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division (2020). International Migrant Stock 2024.

Key Questions

• What are the challenges of making sub-Saharan African migration a matter of choice rather than a matter of necessity?
• How can stakeholders support sub-Saharan African migrants and their host societies in addressing human security crises—such as climate change, pandemics, economic volatility, violent conflicts, setbacks in development aid, and so on—in an era of emerging political change? What is missing?

Objective

• a）better understanding the lived experiences of migrants, how the patterns of their migration are shaped by structural drivers and the agency of people, and what kinds of challenges and opportunities they face;
• b）raising the awareness about the intra-sub-Saharan African migratory process;
• c）attempting to bolster the ability of individuals in sub-Saharan Africa to migrate out of choice rather than out of necessity; and
• d）contributing to the making of international cooperation policies more focused on the needs of migrants, more systematic in their promotion of human security, and more effective in their outcome.

Speakers