Regional Mobility Infrastructures (REMOBILISE)

Free movement is widely recognised as a key driver of economic development, poverty reduction, and individual livelihood strategies. In 1979, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) established a regional free movement regime. However, significant disparities persist in terms of who can practically access this right. Existing research suggests that various legal, technological, and physical impediments contribute to unequal access to free movement, often influenced by factors such as nationality, gender, class, or ethnicity. The overarching objective of REMOBILISE is to empirically investigate how legal, technological, and physical mobility infrastructures shape free movement in West Africa and to analyse their broader consequences. The project unites Amalie Ravn Weinrich, who has conducted pioneering interdisciplinary research on West Africa’s citizenship regimes, and Professor Thomas Gammeltoft-Hansen, a leading expert in migration law and Director of the Centre of Excellence on Global Mobility Law (MOBILE) at the University of Copenhagen.

REMOBILISE draws on and contributes to scholarly debates in political science and law. In particular, it provides the first study that brings together legal studies, citizenship studies, mobility studies, and infrastructure studies to investigate dynamics of free movement in West Africa. The project’s overall aim is structured around three complementary research questions focused on Manifestations, Patterns, and Consequences of mobility infrastructures: 

1. Manifestations: What forms of legal, technological, and physical infrastructures exist to enable or constrain free movement in West Africa, and how have they changed over time?
   
   
2. Patterns: How do legal, technological, and physical mobility infrastructures interoperate and shape free movement in West Africa?
   
   
3. Consequences: What impact do West African mobility infrastructures have on access to free movement across e.g., nationality, gender, class, or ethnicity?

As part of the REMOBILISE project, Amalie Ravn Weinrich will attend a number of conferences, workshops, seminars, and fieldwork stays.

Conference participations

• Governing (African) borders, security and migration: challenges and opportunities, co-organised by the European University Institute and the University of Ghana, held in Accra, Ghana, October 14-15, 2024. 

Fieldwork

• Qualitative field research (semi-structured interviews, focus groups, field observations) conducted in Accra, Ghana, October 4-16, 2024.