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Eva-Maria Egger at IGC panel on integration of migrants and refugees in Mozambique

On 1 December 2022, Eva-Maria Egger, UNU-WIDER Research Fellow in the Inclusive growth in Mozambique programme (IGM), participated in a panel discussion on the short- and long-term integration of displaced people and refugees in Mozambique.

The panel was organized as part of the half-day IGC workshop entitled ‘Migration and Urbanization in Mozambique: The Socio-Economic Integration of Refugees, IDPs, and Rural Migrants’ at Hotel Avenida in Maputo, Mozambique.

In her contribution, Eva-Maria Egger highlighted the importance of investing in education, rural development, and job creation. Referring to the results of an existing IGM paper on the intergenerational mobility in education (WIDER Working Paper 101/2021), she noted that incentives to invest in education have stagnated due to a lack of opportunities in the country. Based on a forthcoming IGM programme paper on the patterns of internal migration in Mozambique, she commented on the low rate of internal mobility of Mozambicans which indicates a lack of economic integration within the country. She further pointed at the importance of secondary towns in rural areas that can be drivers of growth and poverty reduction, as research has shown for other countries — such as India and Tanzania.

The IGC workshop gathered a wide audience representing local and international academia, governmental institutions, development partners and civil society. Other interventions included presentations from the Agency for the Integrated Development of the North (Agência de Desenvolvimento Integrado do Norte, ADIN), UNHCR, Brown University, Nova School of Business and Economics, and IGC.