SECURING BORDERS: THE DANGER OF BLURRING GLOBAL MIGRATION GOVERNANCE AND HEALTH SECURITY AGENDAS IN SOUTHERN AFRICA

The paper argues that blurring the lines between migration governance and health security risks undermining public health in Southern Africa. It warns that securitisation agendas in the Global Compact on Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration and the Global Compact on Refugees may lead to increased irregular migration and deter migrants from accessing healthcare due to fear of deportation. Furthermore, the author cautions that health status could be co-opted as a tool for border restriction, potentially reviving stigmatising travel restrictions similar to those seen during the early HIV epidemic.

• The securitisation of migration governance risks harming health in Southern Africa by creating a larger population of irregular migrants who avoid public healthcare services due to fear of arrest, detention, and deportation.
• There is a risk that global health security agendas will be co-opted to justify further restrictions on movement or the deportation of non-nationals through measures such as compulsory health screening and risk assessments.
• The Southern African Development Community (SADC) region has failed to implement public healthcare systems that are mobility-competent or migration-aware, which contributes to challenges in treating HIV and the rising burden of multi- and extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis.
• Global migration policy is currently driven by nationalist and xenophobic moral panics that frame migrants from the global South as threats to the health of populations in the global North, leading to restrictive border policies.
• The blurring of health and security agendas could lead to a return of stigmatising health-related travel restrictions, similar to those applied to people living with HIV in the 1980s and 1990s.

APA

VEAREY, J. (2018). SECURING BORDERS: THE DANGER OF BLURRING GLOBAL MIGRATION GOVERNANCE AND HEALTH SECURITY AGENDAS IN SOUTHERN AFRICA. South African Institute of International Affairs. https://saiia.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Occasional-Paper-285.pdf

Chicago

VEAREY, JO. SECURING BORDERS: THE DANGER OF BLURRING GLOBAL MIGRATION GOVERNANCE AND HEALTH SECURITY AGENDAS IN SOUTHERN AFRICA. South African Institute of International Affairs, 2018. https://saiia.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Occasional-Paper-285.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=VEAREY |first1=JO |title=SECURING BORDERS: THE DANGER OF BLURRING GLOBAL MIGRATION GOVERNANCE AND HEALTH SECURITY AGENDAS IN SOUTHERN AFRICA |publisher=South African Institute of International Affairs |date=August 2018 |url=https://saiia.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Occasional-Paper-285.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{vearey2018securing, author = {VEAREY, JO}, title = {{SECURING BORDERS: THE DANGER OF BLURRING GLOBAL MIGRATION GOVERNANCE AND HEALTH SECURITY AGENDAS IN SOUTHERN AFRICA}}, institution = {South African Institute of International Affairs}, year = {2018}, month = aug, url = {https://saiia.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Occasional-Paper-285.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }