Emmanuel Quarshie
Visiting Toronto Metropolitan University
Spring 2026
Emmanuel Quarshie is an economist and researcher specializing in labour migration, with a focus on training both state and non-state actors in migration theory, data, research and policy. He currently leads the Migration Governance and Regular Pathways Unit at IOM Zimbabwe and simultaneously supports strategic initiatives with IOM Tunisia on data and research. He is also collaborating with the IOM Regional Office for the Middle East and North Africa in crafting the 2025 Region on the Move Report. Emmanuel also served at the Regional Data Analyst for IOM Regional Office for Southern Africa prior to his role in Zimbabwe.
He has contributed to the development of national migration, diaspora, and labour migration policies in Ghana, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Namibia, and Sierra Leone, and served as one of the three key experts in the EU–Ghana migration policy formulation project in 2022. His scholarly work includes contributions to the World Migration Report, the Missing Migrants Project Regional Report for Southern Africa, the Africa Migration Journal, the African Human Mobility Review, and Springer’s forthcoming 2025 volume on South–South migration.
Emmanuel holds a PhD in Economics from the University of the Witwatersrand and has previously held academic and research positions at both the University of Ghana and Wits University.
Research focus while a Civil Society and Public Administration Fellow
His research will explore how African migrant workers navigate labour shifts through multi-jobholding and platform-based gig work, complementing CERC’s work on algorithmic governance, digital labour, and cross-border mobility. In coordination with the BMO Newcomer Workforce Integration Lab, he will engage with conduct comparative fieldwork with platform workers in Toronto to identify digital solutions for inclusive workforce integration. This aims to foster South–North knowledge exchange and inform future policy coherence between AfCFTA labour mobility frameworks and the evolving realities of automation, digital nomadism, and precarious work in both African and Canadian contexts.
