Introduction

The vast majority of migrants in Africa stay within the African continent, whether these are so-called ‘forced migrants’ in refugee camps or asylum situations, or the much more common and widely diverse categories of other ‘voluntary migrants.’ This latter group is a mix of seasonal and circular migrants, laborers, adventurers, business persons, students, and families reuniting, all with multifaceted motivations and diverse categories of migrants. Despite the scale and importance of intra-continental migration, the dominant academic and policy discourse on migration in Africa has tended to focus on irregular migrants destined to reach the Global North. This has contributed to a focus in scholarly research on migration trends from the Global South to the Global North, to the detriment of research that can conceptualize and analyze trends focused on South-South Migration (SSM). The paucity of data, coupled with lack of research on intra-regional migration, and the inattention to theorizing these patterns of migration, has resulted in very limited knowledge about the forms and patterns of international migration occurring within the African continent and the evolution and drivers of migration within, toward and from Africa. We focus on the key themes of migrant agency, the flow of diverse resources (financial, human, knowledge), and the local manifestations and experiences of the migration journey, particularly in Africa and across the Global South.