CMI Open Research Archive
Not a member yet
2019 research outputs found
Sort by
Refugees in Norway: Stay or Leave Rural Areas?
Full text linkThere is limited research on how the contextual characteristics of residential areas influence the patterns of refugees' voluntary emigrations from the host country. Most existing empirical studies focus on return aspirations rather than actual emigrations and are often based on small samples covering a short time period. This policy brief provides unique, systematic evidence on actual emigration patterns for all cohorts of refugee families resettled in Norway between 1990 and 2018, with a follow-up period of up to 33 years, and who were subject to a spatial dispersal policy.
Our findings reveal that the majority of resettled refugees remain in Norway indefinitely. However, families settled in rural areas are significantly more likely to emigrate compared to those in central locations. Those who emigrate tend to do so within a short time after arrival and, on average, they are less integrated into the labor market. Rather than promoting stability for the refugees, the dispersal policy appears to contribute to both migrations and emigrations from rural areas, which may reduce the effectiveness of local integration efforts and increase costs for the involved municipalities.
Taxation and Governance in Post-Apartheid South Africa: Prospects for a Fiscal Social Contract
Full text linkHistorical evidence from state-building processes in Western countries suggests that a substantial governancdividend can be gained from mobilizing domestic financial resources through the tax system. Democratic South Africa is an intriguing case of a fiscal state where the positive tax-governance link that forms the basis of a productive fiscal contract, has not materialized despite the presence of several factors that would normally work in favor of a fiscal contract: there is tax dominance in state revenue; a salient income tax that contributes the largest share of revenue; taxpayers are informed about how revenue is spent, and South Africa is a constitutional democracy where individual rights and freedoms are protected and executive constraint and accountability are part of the institutional architecture. This paper investigates the historical, political, and economic factors that have contributed to this outcome. It also investigates the prospects for a fiscal social contract to emerge in the future, considering the current weakness in governance and accountability, coerced tax collection in a low-trust environment, and non-transactional state-society dynamics
Civil Society and Social Movements in Contemporary Angola: We Are Civil Society
Full text linkCivil society in Angola operates under increasing repression. This CMI Insight highlights findings from a study mapping how formal and informal groups across all provinces organise, act, and survive
Social media and parliamentary candidates in Uganda
Full text linkDo social media offer more opportunities for parliamentary opposition and independent candidates to reach voters in electoral autocracies? Social media have been seen as a great liberation tool, facilitating the mobilisation of disenfranchised citizens. However, scholarship on electoral autocracies highlights how they are well-versed in subverting democratic innovations. Taking the 2021 legislative campaign in Uganda as a case, we show that social media offer a range of opportunities for the opposition to campaign, while also providing new ways for the regime to try to maintain its dominance. Our findings rely on insights from 35 interviews with legislative candidates combined with data collected from their Facebook pages and Twitter profiles as well as from those of their opponents. We contribute to the literature on electoral autocracy and on candidates' use of social media in electoral campaigns by identifying the opportunities social media offer for both the regime and its opposition
Externally Driven Border Control in West Africa: Local Impact and Broader Ramifications
Full text linkOver the last two decades and with notable increase since 2015, millions of euros have been invested in territorial border governance in West Africa. Targeting migration policy frameworks, capacity building, and the provision of material, the EU and individual European states have sought to improve control mechanisms along these vast and porous borders. This article explores the local impact and broader ramifications of primarily externally funded policy efforts as they are implemented along Ghana's three international borders with Burkina Faso, Côte D’Ivoire, and Togo. Drawing on observations at official checkpoints and interviews with border control officers and border crossers, the article finds that recent initiatives have facilitated the modernization, expansion, and professionalization of border control. Yet, these enhancements have concurrently led to increased reliance on external support, altered local social relations in border checkpoint areas, and triggered the criminalization of legal emigration. The article situates these developments within its geopolitical landscape, illustrating how externally driven migration governance, when detached from local realities, yields both immediate and far-reaching ramifications. Drawing on and extending critical migration governance analysis and border theory, this study underscores the importance of scrutinizing not only explicit, but also the more subtle and rippling effects of European externalization policies in Africa, as they extend beyond local contexts to influence wider societal structures
The power of receipts: Enhancing VAT compliance in Tanzania through customer incentives
Full text linkNursing crabs and the biopolitics of care
Full text linkThis article examines the biopolitics of care within Madagascar's live mangrove crab trade. It reveals how care operates as a governance mechanism beyond ethical or affective practice. Care in this context is both technoscientific and embodied, shaped by regulations, market demands and labour hierarchies. I argue that the care provided to crabs – whether through nursing facilities, cold-chain logistics or the attentive handling by female traders – serves to sustain life and optimize vitality for economic purposes. This tension highlights the crucial yet often overlooked political dynamics of care in sustaining the global live seafood commodity chain. By recognizing the diverse forms of care within the seafood industry, the article also uncovers the socio-economic inequalities and ecological precarity embedded in these asymmetrical care practices
The evolving role of regional universities in Sudan's ongoing war and post-war rebuilding: Pillars of resilience and recovery
Full text linkIntegrating tribes in African constitutionalism: a pathway to innovative democracy. Cases from Sudan, Namibia, and Botswana
Full text link1. Abstract
This study explores how integrating tribes into African constitutional frameworks could foster innovative, context-specific democracy. Drawing on comparative cases from Sudan, Namibia, and Botswana, the research underscores that the traditional authorities that were marginalized by colonial and post-colonial models remain central to social cohesion in many communities. Colonial administrations often co-opted tribal leaders for indirect rule, embedding their authority in local governance but simultaneously distorting indigenous systems. Post-independence constitutions frequently transplanted Western models ill-suited to Africa’s diverse societies, intensifying identity-based conflicts and failing to build inclusive political orders.
While tribal institutions can provide stability and mediate local disputes, they pose challenges for democratisation. Their structures often exclude women and youth, lack accountability, and operate outside universal suffrage principles. Nonetheless, their resilience and enduring legitimacy in rural areas suggest that ignoring them undermines efforts at decentralisation and democratic participation. This study reviews legal arrangements, from Sudan’s Native Administration and Namibia’s Traditional Authorities Act to Botswana’s House of Chiefs, that exemplify different approaches to formalising tribal roles within modern governance.
A reimagined constitutionalism, informed by Africa’s unique social and historical context, is essential. This paper proposes that democratic models should synthesise traditional and modern institutions, balancing respect for communal identity with safeguards for equality and accountability. Ultimately, engaging tribes constructively could expand representation, bolster peacebuilding, and create more legitimate and effective state structures. The analysis emphasises that any sustainable democratic transition in Africa must grapple with tribal dynamics as both a potential resource and a com