Zanker, Dr. Franzisca
Position:
Senior Researcher (Cluster Head)
Email:
franzisca.zanker [at] abi.uni-freiburg.de
Phone:
+49 (0)761 888 78 31
Twitter:
Areas of Research:
Migration governance, peace processes, civil society
Regional Focus:
Sub-Sahara Africa
Publications
Berichte, Studien, Policy Paper, Workingpaper
Zanker, Dr. Franzisca / Dr. Ronald Kalyango Sebba
Uganda is well known as a strong refugee protector, but faces a number of socio-economic and governing challenges, as well as complex political priorities and relationships. Based on our research on the political stakes of refugee protection in Uganda we found:
1. Refugee protection in Uganda follows a development approach that emphasizes refugee self-reliance by providing access to land for subsistence farming, as well as primary education and health facilities within settlements.
2022
Zeitschriftenartikel (Wiss.)
Zanker, Dr. Franzisca
Migration Studies
Despite the explosion of migration literature in recent years, there remains a bias in aca-demic literature to focus on Europe or other areas in the Global North. Migration studiestend to follow the political interests of curbing access for refugees and other migrants in the Global North, divorced from the fact that most displacement and indeed much mobil-ity takes place in the Global South (Fiddian-Qasmiyeh 2020).
2022
Zeitschriftenartikel (Wiss.)
Zanker, Dr. Franzisca / Dr Kwaku Arhin-Sam / Amanda Bisong / Mounkaila Harouna / Leonie Jegen
South African Journal of International Affairs
https://doi.org/10.1080/10220461.2022.2084452
Kwaku Arhin-Sam, Amanda Bisong, Leonie Jegen, Harouna Mounkaila and Franzisca Zanker recently published an article at South African Journal of International Affairs about the free movement protocols of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) which have never been fully implemented, yet within the region people have continued to move relatively freely. At the same time, the original aim to improve mobility appears to be changing to one of control over mobility.
2022
Online-Publikation, Blog-Artikel, op-ed
Zanker, Dr. Franzisca / Leonie Jegen
Migration Control
This report considers the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), which is a regional political and economic union of fifteen countries located in West Africa. More specifically it focuses on one of ECOWAS’ central objectives: the facilitation of free movement in the region. In the following, the foundation and protocols of ECOWAS, everyday mobility in the region and colonial legacies of mobility governance are introduced.
2022
Zeitschriftenartikel (Wiss.)
Zanker, Dr. Franzisca / Dr. Khangelani Moyo
Journal of Immigrant and Refugee Studies
In South Africa there is a conflation between refugees and other migrants at a legislative, policy and narrative level. Based on 32 interviews and four focus groups conducted in Johannesburg and Musina in spring 2020, we show the conflation between refugees and migrants through changing legislation, a bureaucratized system which makes access to any legal status difficult and political narratives that serve to construct a threat. This results in dangerous, sometimes violent consequences for migrant communities themselves.
2022
Online-Publikation, Blog-Artikel, op-ed
Zanker, Dr. Franzisca
Migration Control
Franzisca Zanker wrote a blog post on Migration Control about efforts to offshore the protection of refugees, which have recently been brought into the spotlight once again.
2022
Berichte, Studien, Policy Paper, Workingpaper
Zanker, Dr. Franzisca / Hannah Edler / Prof. Dr. Ulrike Krause / Nadine Segadlo
How has the COVID-19 pandemic affected refugees and their protection? To respond to this question, we conducted a study using a qualitative questionnaire in six countries in East Africa, Southern Africa and West Africa, namely Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Uganda and Zimbabwe. In this paper, we explore the information provided by the 90 respondents and focus on three main areas. We first address vulnerable groups and the new, additional and prolonged challenges, as well as potential tensions among refugees and between refugees and host communities due to the pandemic.
2021
Weitere Artikel, Konferenzberichte, Lexikonartikel und Länderberichte
Zanker, Dr. Franzisca
iz3w
2021
Berichte, Studien, Policy Paper, Workingpaper
Zanker, Dr. Franzisca / Hannah Edler / Ulrike Krause / Nadine Segadlo
The Kenyan Ministry of Interior recently urged international agencies to close down the Dadaab and Kakuma refugee camps in Kenya, once again. This comes at a time when the COVID-19 pandemic has already placed great burdens on the lives and livelihoods of refugees and intensified uncertainties. To better understand how the pandemic has affected refugees in Kenya, this paper discusses results from a recent qualitative questionnaire on refugee protection in light of COVID-19. We find that the pandemic has exacerbated existing challenges, and partly created new ones.
2021
Online-Publikation, Blog-Artikel, op-ed
Zanker, Dr. Franzisca
This post is part of the series “70 Years of UNHCR and the 1951 Refugee Convention: Global Developments”, which is edited and published in cooperation by the Völkerrechtsblog and the Forced Migration Studies Blog (FluchtforschungsBlog).
Though the UNHCR in South Africa go to great efforts to be neutral and provide the best possible assistance to those seeking refuge, by design they have to work together with the Home Affairs department. In practice this means that asylum seekers and refugees will often see them as co-responsible for the government (in-)actions. This piece looks at UNHCR and their roles in humanitarian relief, refugee protests and potential encampment policies, to reflect on their relationship to the South African government as well as refugees in the country.
2021
Berichte, Studien, Policy Paper, Workingpaper
Zanker, Dr. Franzisca / Dr Khangelani Moyo
It is against this background of a long and diverse history of migration to South Africa that we seek to engage in the evolution of the South African refugee protection regime linked to the migration management discourse.
2020
Online-Publikation, Blog-Artikel, op-ed
Zanker, Dr. Franzisca / Dr Khangelani Moyo
Fluchtforschungsblog
Die COVID-19-Pandemie und die weitläufigen Konsequenzen des harten Lockdowns durch die südafrikanische Regierung haben verheerende Auswirkungen auf die Wirtschaft und die Lebensgrundlage vieler Menschen im Land. Geflüchtete und Asylsuchende sehen sich zudem nicht nur mit dem Verlust ihres Lebensunterhalts konfrontiert, sondern müssen in den letzten Jahren auch eine immer größer werdende bürokratische Hürde bewältigen. Die Reaktionen auf die Pandemie werden die Prekarität des ohnehin sehr schwierigen Asylprozesses nur verstärken.
2020
Berichte, Studien, Policy Paper, Workingpaper
Arhin-Sam, Dr. Kwaku / Leonie Jegen / Dr. Franzisca Zanker / M.A. Amanda Bisong
Prior to the pandemic, what was the state of free movement in the ECOWAS region, and what needs to be considered in a post-coronavirus era? This policy brief takes stock of free movement, noting that European interests in migration governance in West Africa have increasingly been criticized as acting detrimentally on regional mobility. It also shows that the implementation of the ECOWAS free movement protocols was already being hindered by the divergent interests of member states, putting ECOWAS in a difficult position.
Finally, it looks at the potential role of civil society actors.
2020
Zeitschriftenartikel (Wiss.)
Zanker, Dr. Franzisca / Dr Khangelani Moyo
Africa Spectrum
https://doi.org/10.1177/0002039720925826
The South African response in dealing with the Corona pandemic needs to speak to the realities of all people living in the country, including migrant and refugee communities. Reflecting on this in light of ongoing research on the political stakes of migration governance, we find that the virus response shows little change in the government agenda when it comes to dealing with refugees and other migrants. Veritably, we see that the pandemic may even be an excuse for pushing through already-aspired to policies.
2020
Weitere Artikel, Konferenzberichte, Lexikonartikel und Länderberichte
Jegen, Leonie / Dr. Franzisca Zanker
2020 MEDAM Assessment Report on Asylum and Migration Policies in Europe
Despite the increasing attention on West Afri-
can countries as a major region of origin for
refugees and other migrants coming to Eu-
rope, there is little research that specifically considers
the position, stakes, or interests of West African states.
However, in order to understand the stakes of migra-
tion cooperation, the EU and its member states need
to better understand how and in what ways African
governments prioritize migration.
2020
Berichte, Studien, Policy Paper, Workingpaper
Arhin-Sam, Dr. Kwaku / Leonie Jegen / Dr. Franzisca Zanker / M.A. Judith Altrogge
Improving cooperation on the return and readmission of West African migrants has been central for the EU in recent years, yet return numbers remain low. In West Africa, the issue of return, and in particular forced return, remains highly sensitive. Cooperating with EU member states on forced return may hurt the domestic legitimacy of governments in countries like the Gambia, Nigeria, Niger, and Senegal. While cooperation on return may help to attract development funds, governments and citizens fear a loss of remittances in the case of large-scale returns.
2019
Online-Publikation, Blog-Artikel, op-ed
Zanker, Dr. Franzisca / M.A. Judith Altrogge
The Conversation
Roughly 38,500 Gambians left the country through ‘irregular’ means between 2013 and 2017. Today, almost every family has ties abroad. The influx of immigrants to Europe and elsewhere was caused by political oppression under the long-serving former president Yahya Jammeh. His oppressive politics also severely affected the economic prospects of The Gambia’s young population.
As a result, a large number of citizens, mostly young men, sought asylum in Europe. But very few have been allowed to stay.
2019
Online-Publikation, Blog-Artikel, op-ed
Jegen, Leonie / Dr. Franzisca Zanker
ECDPM
On 10 October, 123 refugees were evacuated from Libya to Rwanda. This is the second evacuation under the new emergency transit mechanism (ETM) set up in September by the government of Rwanda, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and the African Union (AU), and funded by the AU and the European Union (EU). The ETMs – a humanitarian scheme – threaten to be co-opted by politics as they are changing in their very nature, with resettlement increasingly off the table.
2019
Berichte, Studien, Policy Paper, Workingpaper
Arhin-Sam, Dr. Kwaku / Dr. Franzisca Zanker
Since 2014, Nigeria has outlined several initiatives on migration, including a National Migration Policy, strategies on labor migration and diaspora matters, and a coordinating framework to reform migration governance. However, in order to have a significant impact, the policy frameworks need full implementation.When it comes to migration, the Nigerian government is active on policy development but less so on putting it into effect. This tendency is exemplified by a proactive interest in diaspora migration yet a much more reactive approach toward irregular migration and trafficking.
2019
Berichte, Studien, Policy Paper, Workingpaper
Jegen, Leonie / Dr. Franzisca Zanker
Despite not traditionally being a priority, the issue of migration continues to carry ever more political weight in Niger, mainly due to European interests in curbing transit migrants moving northwards, but also because of increased forced displacement in the country. European migration interests are overriding national interests, to the detriment of local ownership and with adverse effects on local economies, security, and free movement within the boundaries of the Economic Community of West African States.
2019
Online-Publikation, Blog-Artikel, op-ed
Jegen, Leonie / Dr. Franzisca Zanker
ECRE
A new evacuation plan to fly out migrants to Rwanda from Libya, recently announced, offers a way out for some individuals but for the majority the well-documented abuse and torture in Libya is still the reality.
2019
Berichte, Studien, Policy Paper, Workingpaper
Schlee, Dr. Beatrice / Dr. Franzisca Zanker / Prof. Nausikaa Schirilla / Cita Wetterich / Anke Wiedemann
2019
Beitrag Sammelband/ Buchkapitel (Wiss.)
Zanker, Dr. Franzisca / Prof Niklas Hultin
Deadly Voyages: Migrant Journeys across the Globe
Deadly Voyages: Migrant Journeys across the Globe explores the burdens and impact of perilous migration, while considering which laws, policies, practices, and venues might establish empathy and protection for migrants. This interdisciplinary volume envisions and calls for a transformation in migration policy, motivated by the common goal of drastically reducing the peril migrants face when compelled to make their treacherous journeys. All contributors to this volume agree on the inadequacy of current approaches and the dire need for change in global migration law and policy.
2019
Zeitschriftenartikel (Wiss.)
Altrogge, Judith / Dr. Franzisca Zanker
International Migration
https://doi.org/10.1111/imig.12578
In December 2016, Gambian dictator Jammeh was surprisingly ousted through the ballot box by a democratically motivated opposition. With this remarkable change, tables also turned for Gambian migrants. Gambians abroad were called upon to return and help rebuild the nation, while political interests in host states increased to return “irregular” migrants. In what ways can migrant return be politically influential, especially after a critical juncture as in the Gambia?
2019
Beitrag Sammelband/ Buchkapitel (Wiss.)
Mehler, Prof. Dr. Andreas / Dr. Franzisca Zanker
Spatial Practices. Territory, Border and Infrastructure in Africa
“Killing fields”, “war zones”, or “hot spots” of violent conflict; “islands of peace”, “buffer zones” and “horizontal escalation” – all these terms show that violent conflict and peace processes have spatial dimensions. Wars originate somewhere, and are fought in specific places – rarely is violence ubiquitous during civil wars. In much the same way, the “need for peace” and local forms of adaptation processes may vary from province to province or from town to town.
2018