The politics of (un)counting international migration in Senegal and the Gambia

ABSTRACT

Since the European ‘migration crisis’ in 2015, various actors in politics, media and science have called for better data as a basis to efficiently manage migration. This includes a rising demand for more reliable, timely and comparable statistics on the international movement of people, especially on the African continent. International Organizations (IOs) have responded by offering various forms of ‘capacity building’ to their member states. The article looks at the development of statistical knowledge production in Senegal and the Gambia, exploring how interventions by IOs have changed statistical data practices in West Africa. West Africa is a particularly interesting case because, until recently, most post-colonial states did not generate census or survey data on questions of international migration, citizenship or ethnicity. Drawing on recent works in Science and Technology Studies on the performative power of numbers and categories, the article argues that changing data practices have enacted multiple conflicting migration realities in West Africa. Looking at IOs’ epistemic interventions in Senegal and the Gambia, the article offers insights into the ontological politics of counting and categorizing migration in a post-colonial context. It also contributes to a better understanding of the co-production of statistical knowledge and programs of migration management.

KEYWORDS:

• Migration statistics
• politics of knowledge
• international organizations
• migration management
• West Africa

Acknowledgements

I thank my colleagues of the research group ‘The Production of Knowledge on Migration’ at the Institute for Migration Research and Intercultural Studies at Universität Osnabrück, Philipp Schäfer, Laura Stielike and Maurice Stierl, the editors of the Special Issue ‘Reinventing the Politics of Knowledge Production in Migration Research’, Nina Amelung, Stephan Scheel and Rogier van Reekum as well as the anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments and constructive feedback on earlier versions of this article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 See IOM. 2022. “Migration data in West Africa.” https://www.migrationdataportal.org/regional-data-overview/western-africa. Accessed 16 January 2021.

2 The GBoS is a government department under the Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs responsible for the collection, analysis and dissemination of statistical data: https://www.gbosdata.org/about-us. Accessed 16 January 2021.

3 See https://unstats.un.org/unsd/censuskb20/Attachments/2006GMB_Report-GUID930494d18c8b4d62b880ff4e249dd224.pdf. Accessed 07 January 2021.

4 The ANSD is Senegal’s central administrative institution in charge of collecting, analyzing and disseminating statistical knowledge under the Minister of Statistics.

5 See https://unstats.un.org/unsd/demographic/sources/census/quest/SEN2002fr.pdf. Accessed 16 January 2021.

6 See https://sistemasintegrales.cl/project/international-migration-in-west-africa-senegal-and-gambia/. Accessed 21 November 2021.

7 See GBoS website: https://www.gbosdata.org/data-stories/population-and-demography/the-2019-gambia-migration-survey. Accessed 16 January 2021.

8 See e.g. the EU funded projects CLANDESTINO on ‘irregular migration’ in Europe: https://irregular-migration.net/, Accessed 16 January 2021, and MIrreM on “Measuring irregular migration and related policies”: https://www.donau-uni.ac.at/de/aktuelles/news/2022/irregulaere-migration--klarheit-durch-daten-schaffen.html, Accessed 16 January 2021.