Migration is changing cities. But what can the rest of the world learn from Africa, which is now at the forefront of this change?
Migration is frequently narrated through images of cross-border crisis and South–North movement. Yet much of the mobility shaping African lives unfolds within the continent and urban environments. In fact, Africa is the world’s fastest urbanising region, with cities growing at an average rate of 3.5 % per year.
The transformation happening across Africa offers both insight and foresight into how people adapt, move and build lives during a time of global uncertainty. Drawing on Atlas of Uncertainty: Transforming African Cityscapes — a research project bringing together survey research, ethnography, and artistic practice across Accra, Nairobi, and Johannesburg — our guest speakers Dr Loren Landau and Dr Caroline Kihato explores how people's mobility shapes urban futures in uncertain times. They discuss the informal economies and survival strategies that have long sustained urban life, and what these might reveal about the future of cities beyond Africa.
Speakers
Dr Caroline Wanjiku Kihato, is a Visiting Fellow at the Oxford Department of International Development (ODID) and a Research Associate at the African Centre for Migration in Society at Wits University.
Dr Loren Landau is Professor of Migration and Development at Oxford Department of International Development (ODID), Research Professor at the University of the Witwatersrand’s African Centre for Migration & Society, and co-director of the Wits-Oxford Mobility Governance Lab (MGL).
Hosts: Sanne van Oosten, Senior Research at COMPAS and Rob McNeil, Deputy Director and Head of Media and Communications at the Migration Observatory and
Producer: Kelvin Brown
