Migration Pathways in West Africa: Networks, Governance and Migrant Agency
- Date
- December 15, 2026
- Time
- 2:00 p.m. - 3:30 p.m. ET
- Location
- Online
- Open To
- Everyone
- Cost
- Free
Why do people migrate, and how are their migration journeys shaped by networks, institutions, and broader systems (e.g., social, economic, environmental, and political)?
This webinar explores migration pathways across West Africa, examining how family and social networks, state actors, policies and economic conditions influence aspirations and migration decisions. Drawing on migrants’ experiences in Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal and among West Africans in Canada, we highlight key turning points, uncertainties and difficult choices that shape migration trajectories within countries, across the region and beyond. In doing so, we illustrate diverse ways migrants navigate opportunities and constraints and thus argue migration as an evolving process rather than a single decision.
Date: Dec. 15th, 2026
Time: 2:00-3:30PM (EST)
Location: Online
For any questions, please reach out to ashika.niraula@torontomu.ca (opens in new window)
Moderator
Moderator - Professor Christopher Gore, Associate Dean, Research Faculty of Arts, Toronto Metropolitan University
Christopher Gore is a professor in the Department of Politics and Public Administration and a member of the Yeates School of Graduate Studies, where he is a graduate associate with the Environmental Applied Science and Management program and the PhD in Policy Studies program. Chris holds a PhD and MA from the University of Toronto, both in Political Science and Environmental Studies, and a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Sciences from the University of Guelph. Chris has held three collaborative SSHRC grants focused on environmental change and governance in Africa, and brings to the MEMO project expertise in government policy response to complex human and environmental issues.
Featured Speakers
Speaker - Professor Olayinka Akanle, Department of Sociology, Faculty of the Social Sciences, at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria.
Olayinka Akanle is a lecturer in the Department of Sociology, Faculty of the Social Sciences, at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria and he is Senior Research Associate in the Department of Sociology, Faculty of Humanities, University of Johannesburg, South Africa. He was a postdoctoral fellow at the South African Research Chair Initiative (SARChI) in Social Policy, College of Graduate Studies, University of South Africa (UNISA). He has won scholarly awards including: World Social Science Fellowship (WSSF) of the International Social Science Council (ISSC), Paris, France; the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA), Dakar, Senegal; and University of Ibadan, Nigeria’s Postgraduate School Prize for scholarly publication. He is a recipient of the Folke Bernadotte Academy Certificate of Achievement from the Swedish Agency for Peace, Security and Development. His research interests cover international migration and diaspora, social policy, sociological practice and sustainable development. Olayinka works on the links between micro- and macro-processes in migration with emphasis on the interaction between human mobility and socio-economic development.
Speaker - Professor Doudou Dièye Gueye, lecturer-researcher at the Université de Ziguinchor.
Doudou Gueye is a lecturer-researcher at the Université de Ziguinchor. He brings to the MEMO project an expertise on migrant decision-making and the role of the migration industry with emphasis on the interaction between regional/national and international migration pathways.
Speaker - Associate Professor Leyla Sall, Department of Sociology, Université de Moncton.
Leyla Sall is an associate professor of Sociology at the Université de Moncton. He is currently the assistant director of the department, where he has created and taught a variety of courses addressing migration dynamics and related topics. Originally from Senegal and having studied Francophone West African migrants in France and Canada, Leyla has extensive knowledge of migration dynamics in this region of the world. Since 2011, he has been interested in migration dynamics in New Brunswick and immigration in Francophone minority communities in Canada (FMCs).
Speaker - Dr. Thomas Yeboah, Research Fellow, Bureau of Integrated Rural Development (BIRD), Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology and an associate of the Centre for Migration Studies, University of Ghana, Legon.
Thomas Yeboah currently serves as a Research Fellow with the Bureau of Integrated Rural Development (BIRD), Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology. He is an associate of the Centre for Migration Studies, and a fellow of Merrian Institute for Advanced Studies in Africa (MIASA), at the University of Ghana. He holds a PhD in Development Studies from the University of Cambridge, UK and has nearly a decade of experience working on issues around international development, labour migration, migration governance, and migration policies, free movement, and social protection for vulnerable migrants in West Africa.