Social integration of immigrants in Sub-Saharan African communities: challenges and prospects

Social integration is an important enabler of social cohesion, especially in host communities and countries in sub-Saharan Africa that receive large numbers of immigrants. This is because social integration of immigrants and migrants allows them to have and enjoy benefits that unintegrated individuals or persons do not have. Research suggests that, when “insufficient or ineffective efforts are made to ensure social integration, newcomers can become marginalized, and thus more vulnerable to risks of all kinds, including lack of educational opportunities, language barriers and inability to find decent work” (International Organization for Migration [IOM], 2017: 1). As a result, institutions and government departments responsible for local and international migration have prioritized the issue of social integration in their communities and countries, despite the challenges associated with its implementation. For instance, the Southern African Development Community (SADC) recognizes the need for enhancing economic and social integration among member states (SADC, 2005). Its founding declaration and treaty commit it to facilitate free movement of capital goods, labor, and people in the region. However, the SADC Protocol on Facilitation of Movement has not been ratified by the required two-thirds of member states, hence it is not fully enforced (SADC 2005, 2006). In East Africa, the Treaty for the establishment of the East African Community (EAC) explicitly emphasizes political federation as the goal underpinning regional integration efforts, which led to the ratification of the Customs Union Protocol in 2005 and the Common Market Protocol in 2010 (Drummond et al, 2014). Efforts toward a monetary union are well advanced, and the member countries have adopted a Monetary Union Protocol (Drummond et al., 2014).