Exporting Exploitation? State-Sanctioned Labour Migration And Its Implications For An African Feminist Decent And Dignified Work Agenda

In “Exporting Exploitation? State-Sanctioned Labour Migration And Its Implications For An African Feminist Decent And Dignified Work Agenda”, Wangari Kinoti examines the post-Covid rise of labour export programs and what they mean for a Pan-African feminist vision of decent, dignified work and wider wellbeing.

This paper is part of Nawi Collective’s “Care under Social Reproduction” series. Nawi Collective is a Care Economies in Context project partner.

Citation

Kinoti, W. (2026). Exporting Exploitation? State-Sanctioned Labour Migration And Its Implications For An African Feminist Decent And Dignified Work Agenda. https://dev.nawi.africa/kofa/website-admin/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/Exporting-Exploitation-Wangari-Kinoti-.pdf

Abstract

This reflection piece looks more specifically at the contemporary trends of African governments attempting to deal with their formal unemployment and underemployment problem by exporting workers outside the continent. Although migration for work is not at all a new phenomenon, and, in fact, most African migration is intra-continental, the backdrop is a worsening complex, multiple and intersecting global crises with staggering impacts on dignity and freedoms, including rising forced labour, debt bondage, human trafficking, child labour and numerous other forms of labour exploitation. The aim of this piece is to provoke thought and conversation on what the growing labour exports, particularly of poor African women in the care and domestic work sector, mean for Pan African feminist agendas – not only for decent and dignified work, but indeed our wider visions for the wellbeing and quality of life of our people.