Return migration and rural livelihood in Southwestern Burkina Faso Final thesis Valentina Gini Student number: 3443884 Faculty of Geosciences International Development Studies Supervisor: Dr. Annelet Broekhuis Date: January 2011 1 FOREWARD This research is the outcome of field work conducted between February and May 2010 in Burkina Faso. During that period, I worked in ISSP – Istitut Superieur des Science de la Population - the institution which is responsible for carrying out research in population issues. Moreover, I spent four weeks in the Comoé province where I conducted very interesting fieldwork in rural villages in the south west of the country. The experience at ISSP allowed me to achieve a fundamental knowledge on migration dynamics in Burkina Faso. For that reason I would like to thank ISSP, and in particular my local supervisor, B. Dabire for providing me with the opportunity to attend an internship in such an important institution. I also want to convey my deepest gratitude and appreciation to my supervisors at Utrecht University Dr. Annelet Broekhuis who supported me and for all her contribution to this work, with all her advice, suggestions and interesting criticisms from the start of the research to its completion. I would also like to thank my interpreter, Harouna Derra and Soma Aicha, and all the people I encountered during my work in the villages of Mitieridougou, Boko and Dèréguè, who were very hospitable and kind in dedicating their time to answering my questions in the interviews. Without their valuable information this research paper would not have been possible. A final thanks goes to all the people back home in Italy who supported me, first during my experience in the Netherlands, and afterwards in Burkina Faso, it is thanks to their strength and active support that this work was possible. Last but not least, a special thanks goes to the person who took me by the hand and introduced me for the first time to the African continent, “le sorcier blanc” Franco. I will always hold on to your precious advice, Valentina Gini January, 2011 2 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Land is fundamental to the lives of rural people. It is a source of food, shelter, income and social identity. Secure access to land reduces vulnerability to hunger and poverty. However, for many of the world’s extremely poor rural people in developing countries, secure access is becoming more tenuous than ever with respect to the rising competition over land. The research was carried out in Burkina Faso, where after the coup d'etat in Cote d'Ivoire in 2002 some (official) 350,000 Burkinabè migrants went back to Burkina Faso. Return migrants' status was not the same for all: some returnees were the children of Burkinabè immigrants born in Cote d'Ivoire who had never been given full Ivorian citizenship, and many of them were entering Burkina Faso for the first time. Due to the hard environmental conditions of the north and central area of the country, the majority of returnees did not necessarily decide to go back to the areas where they or their family originated from, they also moved to other areas of Burkina Faso that had become attractive because of the availability of land. The newly returned migrants (who added three percent to Burkina Faso's 12 million population) though put a strain on the already scarce resources as they caused an increase in the competition over land endangering the delicate local environment and social balance. Moreover, with the returnees resettling the risk of them failing to reconstruct safe livelihood strategy increased. The main argument of this thesis is that the necessary prerogative for any sustainable livelihood approach to the reintegration process is to secure land tenure. In order to achieve this diverse issues played a part, such as personal (human-financial capital), environmental (availability of natural resources) and social (social capital) and area (physical capital) characteristics. Moreover land tenure security is at the base of food security which is the first objective for sustaining any livelihood, which also includes housing, social status and a means for future generations. Keywords: Burkina Faso, Return Migrants, livelihood strategies, land tenure security 3 LIST OF CONTENTS Chapter I – Burkina Faso the Country and its migration history 1.1 – Burkina Faso 7 1.2 - International migration of Burkinabé in a historical context 14 1.3 - The Ivory Coast, major destination of Burkinabé migrants 19 Chapter 2 – Theoretical Approach 2.1 - Theoretical approach on return migration 26 2.2 - Return migration and migrants' rights: a livelihood approach 34 2.3 - Migrants' access to resources and conflicts 39 Chapter 3- Methodology 3.1 – The Research question 43 3.2 – Definition of key concepts 44 3.3 – Methodological approach 48 Chapter 4 – Institutional framework in Burkina Faso 4.1 – Migration Policy and agreements 56 4.2 – Land policy 61 4.3 – Operation Bayiri 66 Chapter 5 – Return dynamics in Burkina Faso 5.1 - Migratory path from the Ivory Coast 70 5.2 – Returnees' categories and analysis 79 5.3 – Government intervention in assisting return migrants 83 Chapter 6 – Consequences of Burkinabè returnees in the province of Comoé (Burkina Faso) 6.1 – Introduction to the province of Comoé 88 6.2 – Presentation of villages: Mitieridougou, Boko and Dèréguè 93 6.3 – Social and environmental changes after 2002 96 Chapter 7 – General changes in land access system after the arrival of migrants 7.1 – Traditional access to land 104 7.2 – Migrants access to land after the massive arrive of migrants 107 7.3 – How locals reacted to the massive return flows 113 7.4 – Arising of land conflicts 115 7.5 – Land insecurity and local strategies for securing rights 118 Conclusion 123 4 LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1.1: Location of Burkina Faso on the African Continent 8 Figure 1.2: Burkina Faso's administrative regions and provinces 9 Figure 1.3: Population density in Burkina Faso (2006) 11 Figure 1.4: Ivory Coast divided between north and south (2002) 23 Figure 1.5: Ivory Coast in 2003: forces and population movements 24 Figure 3.1: Conceptual Model 46 Figure 3.2: The Comoé province 50 Figure 5.1: Immigrants in Burkina Faso 73 Figure 5.2: Emigration from the Ivory Coast compared to immigration 74 Figure 5.3: Main reasons for return 75 Figure 5.4: Return path from the Ivory Coast 77 Figure 5.5: Repatriation of Burkinabè returnees according to sex and age 78 Figure 6.1: The Comoé and its departments 89 Figure 6.2: Immigrants in the Comoé according to their provenance 91 Figure 6.3: Population growth in the villages 95 Figure 6.4: Repatriation of people in the villages according to their status 97 LIST OF TABLES Table 1.1 Total population according to place of residence 10 Table 3.1 Focus on villages 51 Table 3.2 Respondents 53 Table 3.3 Respondents according to their migratory status 53 Table 3.4 Migrants respondents according to the year of arrival 54 Table 5.1Population exchange between Burkina Faso and The Ivory Coast 72 Table 7.1: Perception of land conflicts 116 Table 7.2: Land conflict's fault 117 Table 8: Reintegration framework 124 5 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS CSBE – Conseil Superieur des Burkinabè de l'Etranger CONASUR – Comoté nationalle de secours d’urgence et de réhabilitation COPROSUR- Comités provinciaux de secours d’urgence et de réhabilitation DFID – Department for International Development DFN – Domain Foncier National FAO – Food and Agriculture Organization IFAD – International Fund for Agricultural Development IDP – Internally displaced person INS – Institut National de la Statistique (Cote d'Ivoire) INSD – Institut National de la Statistique et Demographie IOM – International Organisation for migration ISSP – Institut Superieur des Science de la Population MBDPH – Mouvement Burkinabè des droits de l homme et des peuples MSF – Medecins sans Frontiers NELM - New Economics of Labour Migration OECD – Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development RAF – Reorganisation Agraire et Foncier RGPH : Recensement Général de la Population et de l’Habitation SIAMO - Syndicat Interprofessionnel d’Acheminement de la maind’ceuvre UERD – Unité d'Enseigment et de recherche en demographie UNHCR – United Nation High Commissioner for Refugees UNICEF - United Nation Children's Emergency Fund WAEMU - West African Economic and Monetary Union WHO – World Health Organization WFP – World Food Programme 6 CHAPTER I BURKINA FASO: THE COUNTRY, AND ITS MIGRATION HISTORY This chapter will give a short introduction of the historical, political, economic and cultural characteristics on migration in Burkina Faso, which as other countries of West Africa has a long history of population mobility, both regionally and internationally. The reasons and factors for deciding to migrate are diverse: long- distance trade, the search for pasture, urbanisation and plantation agriculture, armed conflict, land degradation, drought and rural poverty. Certainly, migration played a major role in shaping settlement patterns in the region (Adepoju 2005). The second part introduces the historical migration path of Burkina Faso which, following the West African trends, has experienced important migration flows in and especially out of the country for a long time. However, because of the strong historical, cultural and then migratory links between Burkina Faso and the Ivory Coast – topic of the third part – when the Ivory Coast went through a severe economic crisis at first and subsequently a deep political crisis, there was a surge of violence against foreigners, many Burkinabè nationals had to return to their country in very difficult circumstances. 1.1 Burkina Faso Burkina Faso is a landlocked country in West Africa. It is surrounded by six countries: Mali to the north, Niger to the east, Benin, to the south-east, Togo and Ghana to the south and Cote d'Ivoire to the south-west.