Labour migration: AU taps African journalists to change narrative

The African Union is tapping senior journalists from the continent to upend the narrative on labour migration which the bloc says has been largely seen as a vice rather than an important cog of social economic development.

The details emerged this week from a two-day workshop in Dakar, Senegal where officials of the African Union gathered at a workshop jointly oorganised with the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the Federation of African Journalists (FAJ) under the continental Joint Labour Migration Programme (JLMP).

JLMP has been the platform to help spread awareness on labour migration, such as when Africans move to the Gulf countries for work, for example, or between countries on the continent. Most of the reporting, however, has been based on oddities, AU officials admitted.

Dr Sabelo Mbokazi, Head of the African Union’s Division of Labour, Employment, and Migration called it a misunderstanding from biases that are built from the way journalists on the continent source information.

“One significant challenge we face is that some media houses in Africa publish editorial content sourced from Western media, which often perpetuates a negative portrayal of our continent,” said Dr Mbokazi in a speech.

“Ideally, this flow of information should be reversed, with Western media drawing from African sources to present a more balanced and accurate depiction of Africa,” he added.

After the meeting dubbed Capacity Building Workshop for Journalists and Editors on Building Positive Narrative on Labour Migration Governance in Africa, the participants released a communique which detailed these challenges.

They included difficulties in getting data on migration, lack of training on reporting, limited literacy on interpreting data, “tendency of adopting narratives from sources outside the continent of Africa and threats to journalists which in turn force self-censorship.

The Communique also cited “underreporting stories from the perspective of African countries of origin often due to limited knowledge about the evolving nature of the phenomenon of labour migration.”

The journalists, most of them senior editors and reporters from over 35 media houses across different African countries then committed to establish a network to coordinate and improve standards of coverage of labour migration in Africa.

This network, working with the African Union, is supposed to help organise training for reporters on labour migration, provide data resources, and generally improve awareness on labour migration as a relevant rights-based issue.

According to data from the AU’s Africa Migration Report, nearly 85.5 percent of Africa’s employed population – including migrant workers – works in the informal sector. The continental body says stories that place humans at the centre of the narrative can help improve perceptions on migrant workers.

And with Africa having the fastest growing size of the young population in the world, where  over 400 million people aged between 15 and 35, employment is going to rely on migration as an informed choice to seek new opportunities.

Omar Faruk Osman, the President of Federation of African Journalists (FAJ) said focusing on building positive narratives is a duty for African media outlets.

“Migrant workers often fill vital gaps in labour markets, send remittances that support families and communities back home and facilitate the exchange of skills and knowledge,” he reiterated during the workshop on August 5-7.

“It is incumbent upon us to be at the forefront in telling the story of Africa and Africans,” he added. According to the Federation, most stories about labour migration are unfairly adulterated.

But it is not the media outlets to blame. A shortage of information or access to it and the continual battle with false news are among challenges seen as barriers to proper reporting.

In the communiqué published on August 7, the participants urged the media professionals and houses to counteract disinformation and misinformation about the evolving nature of the phenomenon of labour migration in Africa, especially the negative stereotypes and narratives borrowed from sources outside the continent of Africa by promoting a more accurate and balanced portrayal of African migration experiences.

In May, African African countries established a platform to negotiate the welfare of migrant labourers to the Gulf countries in a move to end the suffering of workers and protect their welfare.

Known as Doha Dialogue, committed to follow steps for ethical recruitment and rights-based employment of workers in the Gulf.

The workshop said in the communiqué, they will “ensure that the voices of migrants in the continent and other regions are heard ethically and responsibly, fostering empathy and understanding through critical analysis of the prevailing narratives among audiences.”