How WSF changed ways participants see migration

For many of the Nigerians who attended the just-concluded World Social Forum (WSF) in Cotonou, Benin, the experience was more than an international gathering of activists, civil society organisations, researchers and migration advocates.

For a group of Nigerian returnees organised as Network of People with Migration Experience, who were at the programme, it was a moment of questioning.

It was an opportunity to listen to voices from different parts of the world and, perhaps most importantly, to question some of the assumptions they had previously held about migration, migrants and the policies designed to control human mobility.

Across conversations on deportation, border externalisation, criminalisation, trafficking, climate change, reintegration and migrants’ rights, participants encountered a broader understanding of migration — one that placed human dignity and lived experience at the centre.

For some, it was an affirmation of what they already believed. For others, it was an uncomfortable but necessary shift in perspective.

From statistics to people

One of the strongest lessons emerging from the participants’ experiences was that migrants must be understood as human beings rather than statistics, policy subjects or security concerns.

Purity Franca Onikoliase, an advocate working on the rights and well-being of migrants and returnees, described the Forum as a “meaningful and transformative experience.”

She said the discussions helped her understand that migration is not simply about movement from one country to another.

It is also about human rights, dignity, protection, family, livelihoods and social justice.

The Forum, she noted, brought together migrants, returnees, survivors, civil society organisations, advocates and other stakeholders, allowing participants to encounter experiences that are often missing from official statistics and policy documents.

That same principle resonated with Alia Joke Oreoluwa, who returned from Cotonou with a stronger conviction that migrants should not merely be discussed by others.

“Migrants must be involved in designing policies, programmes and solutions that affect their lives,” she said, stressing that solutions should be informed by the real experiences and needs of affected people.

For her, the message was simple: nothing about migrants should happen without migrants.

Rethinking the meaning of “irregular migration”

For some participants, perhaps the most significant impact of the Forum was the challenge it posed to conventional narratives around irregular migration.

Rita Abu came to the Forum with an understanding shaped largely by her work with returning migrants. Her focus had often been on sensitising people about the dangers of irregular migration — trafficking, exploitation, death in the desert or at sea and other risks encountered along migration routes.

She encouraged people to use safer and regular pathways whenever they were available.

But Cotonou prompted a different question.

Why are people taking dangerous routes in the first place?

The question shifted the focus from the migrant’s decision to the conditions surrounding that decision.

Abu said she began to recognise that migration itself is not necessarily the problem. People have always moved in search of work, education, family reunification, safety and better opportunities.

What requires deeper examination, she realised, are the policies and border-control systems that can make migration increasingly difficult and, in some circumstances, more dangerous.

The experience left her with a question that continues to occupy her:

Why has safe migration become so difficult that people are willing to risk their lives to move?

Looking beyond Europe’s definition

Ejike Ezeonyido similarly described the Forum as an opportunity to move beyond what he had previously understood as the dominant European interpretation of migration.

The experience broadened his knowledge of migration and migrants’ rights, exposing him to experts and activists from different parts of the world.

He also encountered a range of migration working groups examining issues including externalisation, criminalisation, deportation, death and disappearance, and climate change and migration.

Perhaps most revealingly, he came to a personal realisation: he had, unknowingly, been promoting what he described as “migration MADE IN EUROPE.”

The Forum, he said, equipped him to participate in migration conversations from different contexts and perspectives.

That shift — from accepting dominant narratives to interrogating them — was echoed by Chylian Ify Azuh.

Azuh said the Forum provided “critical knowledge, transnational connections and solidarity,” while deepening her understanding of the power dynamics surrounding migration.

She encountered perspectives that went beyond familiar discussions of safe and irregular migration, trafficking, return and reintegration.

Conversations around freedom of movement, border externalisation and the criminalisation of migration challenged her previous understanding.

More importantly, she began asking difficult questions about how migration narratives are constructed.

Who and what is responsible for migrants’ vulnerabilities?

Who defines the problem and the solution?

And what are the consequences of those solutions?

For Azuh, the Forum was therefore not simply an educational experience. It became a moment of reflection on her own role in shaping migration narratives and a challenge to become more deliberate about confronting misinformation and what she described as corruption within the migration sector.

When borders move beyond borders

The issue of externalisation emerged repeatedly in participants’ reflections.

Yaramola Blessing arrived at the Forum with a perception that the struggle over migration was largely a confrontation between Europe and Africa — or between white people and Black people.

Cotonou changed that understanding.

She encountered people from different countries, communities and backgrounds who were also organising around migrant rights and justice.

That discovery gave her a sense that the struggle was not isolated to Africa or to individual activists. It was part of a wider global movement.

The discussions also helped her make sense of questions she had carried for years about migration policies, border controls and the European Union’s approach to migration.

Sessions on borders, frontiers and externalisation provided a framework for understanding how migration-control systems operate beyond Europe’s geographical borders and how their effects are felt in African countries.

She also developed a deeper understanding of xenophobia, recognising that hostility towards migrants is not driven solely by individual prejudice but can also be influenced by politics, policy, misinformation and fear.

The result was a stronger sense of purpose.

Blessing said she returned with better knowledge, language and confidence to advocate for migration justice, reintegration and survivors’ rights.

Deportation, return and the question of dignity

The Forum also forced participants to confront the experiences of people who have already made the journey and returned — voluntarily or through deportation.

For Udekwe Kennedy Obinna, one of the most eye-opening aspects of the Forum was learning more about deportation structures in Europe and the role of agencies such as Frontex.

He said the discussions exposed gaps that require greater engagement from civil society organisations and government actors in affected countries.

Such engagement, he argued, is necessary to identify loopholes, support local organisations and increase visibility for the experiences of victims, potential migrants and survivors.

But perhaps the most important lesson for him was the need to challenge the portrayal of deportees and returnees as criminals.

Returnees, he stressed, should not be automatically viewed through the lens of failure, illegality or criminality.

Their dignity and confidence must be restored.

That requires psychosocial support, stronger reintegration programmes and a broader recognition that returning migrants are people whose lives, aspirations and experiences continue beyond the end of a migration journey.

Knowledge, networks and renewed inspiration

Beyond the policy debates and critical conversations, the Forum also created something equally important: relationships.

Ajah Esther said she returned with three major gains — knowledge, new networks and inspiration.

Listening to movements from different parts of the world broadened her understanding of how people are fighting for justice and supporting reintegration.

The Forum also introduced her to organisations with which partnerships could potentially be developed.

But the most personal takeaway was the reminder that the work of migration advocates matters.

“Beyond the stereotype of storytelling lies our expertise,” she reflected.

That sense of solidarity was shared by other participants who described meeting activists and organisations that had spent years challenging policies they considered harmful to migrants.

For many, seeing that this work was being undertaken across countries transformed what could otherwise have been an overwhelming struggle into a shared one.

Migration requires regional solutions

Tobi Ayediran brought the conversation back to a fundamental reality: migration does not stop at national borders.

His major lesson from the Forum was that migration cannot be addressed by one country alone.

It is a regional issue requiring cooperation across borders, particularly in West Africa.

Migration is intertwined with unemployment, poverty, insecurity, climate change, trafficking, exploitation and the search for better opportunities. Consequently, responses must go beyond border enforcement and address the circumstances that shape people’s decisions to move.

Ayediran also emphasised the need for safe migration pathways, protection of migrants’ rights, prevention of trafficking and sustainable reintegration for returnees.

At the centre of all these interventions, he said, should be the person.

Behind every migration statistic is a human being with a story, dignity and aspirations.

From Cotonou to action

The most significant outcome of the World Social Forum may ultimately not be what participants learned in Cotonou, but what they do with that knowledge after returning home.

Their reflections reveal a common movement from simply discussing migration to questioning how migration is discussed.

They returned with new language for examining externalisation and border controls. They encountered international networks of solidarity. They were challenged to rethink assumptions about irregular migration, deportation and return. And they were reminded that migrants themselves must have a voice in the policies that shape their lives.

For some, the Forum confirmed existing convictions. For others, it disrupted long-held assumptions.

But across their experiences was a shared realisation: migration is too complex to be reduced to borders, statistics or warnings about dangerous journeys.

It is about people.

People who move in search of opportunity, safety, family and dignity.

People who face risks along the way.

People who are returned and must rebuild their lives.

And people whose voices must be heard when governments and organisations design the policies that determine how, where and under what conditions they can move.

The conversations in Cotonou may have ended, but the questions they generated remain.

If migration is a human reality, can migration policies be truly effective without putting people at their centre?

And if the challenges migrants face cross borders, can the solutions remain confined within them?

For the participants who gathered in Cotonou, the answer appears increasingly clear: migration does not stop at borders, so neither should solidarity, responsibility or the search for justice.