The integration of migration issues in the Economic Partnership Agreements

The chapter explores the prospects and implications of integrating migration issues into the full Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) with sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). The extent to which migration issues are integrated into full EPAs is particularly relevant to understanding the development prospects of these agreements, because of the complementary relationship that exists between migration and trade on the one hand, and migration and development, on the other. Furthermore, the integration or lack thereof of migration issues in the EPAs can also offer an important indicator as to the policy coherence between the EU’s trade and development policies in its external relations towards Africa. It is demonstrated that at the EU level there has been a very limited scope for integrating migration issues into trade agreements. This limited link between migration and trade has some important implications for making migration policies work positively towards African development, especially in the context of EPAs. Furthermore, it also evidences some shortfalls in the area of EU policy coherence in its relations with Africa, in that trade and migration continue to operate in two very separate policy spheres.