Comfortably numb: Behind the policy push for skill and qualification recognition systems in Southern Africa

This paper interrogates the disjuncture between skill and qualification recognition policies in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) from the lived realities of labour migration. Drawing on document analysis, interviews, and surveys with migrants, employers, and policy actors, we show a performative policy landscape with little connection to the problems it officially claims to solve. While national and regional qualifications frameworks claim to facilitate labour mobility and economic integration, their actual impact remains negligible—particularly for low-skilled migrants for whom formal credentialing is largely irrelevant. Conversely, for high-skilled migrants, recognition processes are slow, fragmented, and frequently obstructive. We argue that the extensive policy-busyness in these systems can be understood as a technocratic process of constructing skill recognition as a central problem experienced by migrants, deflecting attention from deeper structural issues such as wage inequality, segmented labour markets, and exclusionary migration regimes. The ‘policy busy-ness’ sustains a false ‘win-win’ narrative while ignoring underlying power asymmetries. • The SADC region has many tools and frameworks for skill and qualification recognition. • Recognition systems are complex, and often inaccessible and irrelevant to the majority of migrants. • For highly skilled jobs, recognition processes are frequently cumbersome and inefficient. • There seems to be little need from employers or migrants for skill recognition for low skilled jobs. • Qualification alignment is the wrong tool for fairer or more inclusive economic participation.