Migration Spurs EU Investment in Africa

Posted: April 9th, 2017

By Asmita Parshotam

Asmita Parshotam is a researcher under the Economic Diplomacy Programme at the South African Institute of International Affairs. She is an international trade and development expert, and an admitted attorney of the High Court of South Africa, having served her legal articles at Bowman Gilfillan Incorporated, a corporate law firm in Johannesburg. In 2013, she received her Master of Arts degree in International Relations at the University of Witwatersrand. Parshotam previously worked at the World Trade Organisation in Geneva, where she gained experience working on multilateral trade concerns within the agricultural and legal spheres, and the European Centre for Development Policy Management, a research institute based in Maastricht, the Netherlands, where she gained experience working on EU-African development issues, including migration, EU-South African relations and EU joint co-operation strategies.

Recent heavy migration from Africa to Europe has renewed the European Union’s focus on maintaining stability and contributing to the economic development of its southern neighbor in an effort to stem the migrant flows. Asmita Parshotam, a researcher under the Economic Diplomacy Programme at the South African Institute of International Affairs, tells The Cipher Brief that the EU has long had vested interests in Africa, but new EU programs aim to greatly boost the continent’s development and security.

The Cipher Brief: EU investment in Africa seems to be increasing over the past couple of years in particular. Is this accurate, and if so, why?

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