Migration is an important phenomenon in Ugandan’s history and present. It is captured in key narratives about Uganda as a refugee sending and refugee receiving country, not to mention its impacts on the economic fortunes of the nation. Uganda has come to be defined by its generous refugee hosting model, a novel, internationally recognized permissible approach to receiving and integrating displaced persons[1].
But the country‘s troubled socio-political history has led to the emigration of Ugandans across the globe over time, creating a sizeable Ugandan diaspora on the continent and beyond. In deed, more recently, economic challenges at home have motivated a concerted effort to systematize labor migration or labor export as a strategy for human resource management and economic development[2].
From the above background, a plethora of fundamental questions ensue: what policy options, processes, structures and instruments are necessary to ensure the full and efficient functioning of the migration and refugee management order in Uganda? What key values and principles should inform it? What actors and institutions should shape it? And how should it be actualized? What are geopopolitical aspects of migration and force displacement in Uganda?
Throughout 2022, the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung (KAS) and the Centre for Multilateral Affairs (CfMA) shall partner to conduct separate research activities addressing some of these questions.
[1] Mulimba & Olema, 2009; Coggio, 2018; IOM/GOU (2014) Labour Migration Management Assessment: Uganda; IOM (2018). Migration Governance Profile: Republic of Uganda. UN Migration
[2] (IOM/GOU, 2014).
