The chapter is a contribution to deepening knowledge on the historical trajectories of migration in Côte d’Ivoire. Based on a critical review of documents and literature, the chapter highlights the different waves of migration into Côte d’Ivoire. Both colonial and post-colonial coercive and attractive migration policies created the country as an important migration hub in West Africa. We situate the development of the cash crop economy in Côte d’Ivoire and its 20 years economic boom between 1960s and early 1980s, within the history of labour migrations into the country and the later crises that ensued as a result. While the development of the Ivorian economy was the driver for the policies during the period, the colonial era labour movements into the area hinged on repressive labour policies while the latter period was an attractive open door policy which included favourable land, citizenship and voting right grants to migrants. We reflected on how demographic growth and economic recession of the 1990s blurred this dynamic, thus leading to a change in the relationship between indigenes and migrants. The situation has led to a rigidity of Ivorian laws that cumulated in military, political and post electoral crises and civil strife thereby putting a brake on immigration. We reflected on the accentuation of migrant flows and transfers into the country in the recent Ivoirian migration and civic discourse and narratives which silence the contribution of migrants to the economic development of Côte d’Ivoire and the historical foundations of immigration and of a strong presence of foreign labour in the country. This we argue has ramifications for the management of migration in the country.

1 Introduction

Labour migration across the world has been increasing and a deepening of old migration patterns (IOM, 2020). In Africa, migration is an old phenomenon and remains relevant in the social, economic, cultural and political transformations on the continent. Generally, intra-African migration flows are directed towards forest regions at the expense of savannah regions which is also the cause of low growth in the sending areas (Administrative Censuses 1955, 1965; National Institute of Statistics 1975, 1988). The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), region accounted for the highest rates (2.2%) of international migration followed by the East African Community (EAC) with an estimated rate of 2.1% in 2014 (African Union, 2015). Mobility in the region has been influenced by a number of factors including social networks and ethnic ties, ECOWAS’s free movement of persons and goods protocols and historical labour migration patterns. An important factor is the development imbalances within countries and among countries. Mobility has seen two main directions, from subsistent agricultural production regions to export crop agricultural regions.

The second is the out-migration from the subsistence agricultural regions to industrial zones (Velenchik, 1993). Environmental distress in the sahelian regions has also lead to mobility from Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger towards the coastal and forest regions in West Africa particularly Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire. Most migrations are circular, seasonal and permanent. The chapter traced back the history of migration in Côte d’Ivoire by highlighting the relevant complexities. The introduction is followed by a discussion of the evolution of migration in the country. The next sections detailed the forced migration patterns in the colonial period, the voluntary migration trends in the post-independence era, the role of the military, political and electoral crises in the evolution of immigration flows and the investigation of the modes of access of migrants to land in Côte d’Ivoire. Child labour is discussed as a significant element of the migration history of the country. The concluding part presents a synthesis of the Ivorian migration history.

2 Trend and Patterns of Migration in Côte d’Ivoire

Côte d’Ivoire has been one of the main immigration countries in Africa since its independence. Indeed, since then, the annual growth rate of the number of immigrants has oscillated between 1.8% and 4.4% before dropping to 0.3% during the period 2000–2005 because of the politico-military crisis that took place there (UN-DESA, 2009). It is the second most important destination for international migrants on the continent with South Africa being the first while its city, Abidjan is among the top three migration hubs on the continent in addition to Johannesburg and Nairobi. In 2017, 2.1 million intra-African migrants lived in Côte d’Ivoire. Due to its changing nature of definition of migrants, a number of estimates have been referenced to show the extent of migration in the country historically. In 2015, the migrant estimates was 10% of the total population, 4 million or 25% in 1998 (Republique de Côte d’Ivoire, 2001), 15% in 1990 and 23% in 1970 (OCDE/CIRES, 2017). According to the National Institute of Statistics (INS, 2002: 45), the number of immigrants was 2,163,644 in the 1998 census. This represented 14.1% of the population. In 1988, 2% of immigrants were foreign-born Ivoirians returning to the country, but most immigrants were foreigners (98%) from, in order of importance, Burkina Faso (54.3%), Mali (18.1%), Guinea (5.5%) and Ghana (4.9%).

In 1975, one-third of Ivoirians lived in places other than their place of birth. These figures show both degree of internal migration and immigration flows. The immigrant population rates have shown significant decline since 1988 when the economic crisis and neoliberal development paradigm took the centre stage (Table 10.1). The development of the plantation economy has perpetuated and reinforced internal and external migration flows to the Ivorian forest zone. The implicit migration policy that prevailed in Côte d’Ivoire was characterized by an openness to the free movement of people and goods, and easy access to land ownership, enshrined in the famous expression “the land belongs to the person who develops it”.

Table 10.1 Immigrants population in Côte d’Ivoire (1975–1998)
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The population census shows that the migrant population has always represented a significant proportion (over 41%) of the Ivorian population although it has been declining since 1988. The proportion was 47.2% in 1975; 42% in 1988; 41.4% in 1993; 42.7% in 1998 and 41.72 in 2014 (Table 10.1).

The Côte d’Ivoire-Burkina-Faso corridor is the second important migration corridor in Africa with 1.3 million flows in 2017. In 1975, there were 548,242 Burkinabé migrants in the country. This figure increased to 1,408,780 in 2014. Table 10.1 shows a constant increase in Burkinabe migrant population in Côte d’Ivoire since 1975. Similarly, the Burkinabe population in Côte d’Ivoire has continued to increase. There were 86,282 in 1960 and in 2014, this figure increased to 3,552,173 (Table 10.2).

Table 10.2 Burkinabè population in Côte d’Ivoire (1960–2014)
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The other corridors include Côte d’Ivoire- Senegal and Côte d’Ivoire- Mali both of which are mainly labour migration routes (UNCTAD, 2018). In 2019, the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN-DESA) (2019) estimated that 2,549,141 were living in Cote d’Ivoire. The statistics also show Côte d’Ivoire among the top 20 destinations of migrants in Africa with Côte d’Ivoire- Burkina Faso migration corridor the second most significant in Africa. Despite the various socio-political crises that marked the first decade of the 2000s, the percentage of immigrants in the total population is quite high. Among the ten countries analysed in the report, Côte d’Ivoire has the highest immigration rate, estimated at 9.6% in 2015 (OECD/ILO, 2018). According to the National Institute of Statistics (INS), the high gross activity rate among immigrants (almost 60%) suggests that immigration to Côte d’Ivoire is mostly labour driven (INS, 2002).

Migrant flows into Côte d’Ivoire are an essential part of the socioeconomic formations of the country historically. Characterised by an impressive economic growth for 20 years between 1960 and early 1980s, and the leading cocoa producer in the world, migration into Côte d’Ivoire has shown some complexities important to note. The commercialisation of coffee and cocoa has resulted in land and labour induced migrations either through coercive policies or voluntary migration. Cocoa production expanded from the 1920s on the back of immigrants from Upper Volta, now Burkina Faso and Mali in particular.

The country like many other peasant economies was built on an outward and export-led agricultural commodity production. Cocoa and coffee were the crops that propelled the country’s consistent GDP growth of 7% for 20 years and an unprecedented GDP per capita growth of US3770 in 1988 (Lambert et al., 1991). Côte d’Ivoire was undoubtedly a middle income country. However, this growth was driven by migrant labour and keen participation in the economy due to open migration policies during the period. Compared to Ghana, its cocoa production grew faster recording a 13-fold growth. In 1970, the country produced 67,000 tonnes of cocoa. It saw a remarkable increase in production in 1988 with an astonishing 880,000 tonnes compared to its regional rival Ghana which used 25 years to achieve a marginal 500,000 tonnes in 1965 from 100,000 tonnes in 1920 (Crook, 2001). This is no mean feat and a veritable trigger of economic boom, migration and subsequent social upheaval linked to identity politics and struggles of local citizenship and growing inequality (Langer, 2008).

Agriculture continues to play its role as the “largest employer” in Côte d’Ivoire, although to a lesser extent than before. This sector employed 61.9% of active indigenes in 1995, 53.9% in 2008 and 41.8% in 2014. For immigrants, the percentage employed in this sector first increased from 34.2% in 1995 to 50.4% in 2008, before declining again to 47.7% in 2014. Thus, while immigrants were underrepresented in agriculture in 1995 and 2008, the opposite situation is observed in 2014 (OECD/ILO, 2018). In general, while the contribution of the agriculture sector to GDP declined overtime (21% in 2019), the sector employed 40% of the working population in 2019.

In a recent survey in the country, the dominance of migrants in the cocoa economy has been noted, where 17% of people sampled in cocoa households indicated they were born in a different region from where they were enumerated. The figure for their non-cocoa producing household counterparts was only 9%. Similarly, 9% of cocoa households compared to 3% of non-cocoa household members reported being born outside Côte d’Ivoire (Bymolt et al., 2018). The majority of migrants in the Ivorian economy work on plantations in the Ivorian forest zone. Thus, the plantation economy occupies a central place in the migration problematic of the country and its three northern neighbours namely Burkina Faso, Mali and Guinea. This is historically attributable to the massive call for labour from neighbouring colonies to exploit agricultural resources in the forest zone (UN-DESA, 2019). Thus, understanding rural migration in Côte d’Ivoire is primarily a matter of understanding the functioning of the coffee and cocoa economies. With agriculture being the most important employment sector in Côte d’Ivoire, it is not surprising that the most common occupations are farming and agricultural work in 2008, 46% of indigenes and 42% of immigrants were in these occupations.

Since independence, net immigration has been positive and increasing during periods of positive growth. During the three five-year periods from 1960 to 1975, the average annual growth rate of GDP was positive and the net migration rate increased from 10.4 to 13.5 per 1000 inhabitants. Thereafter, with the exception of the period from 1995 to 2000, growth is negative and the migration rate simultaneously declines to (−4.3) in 2000–05. In other words, more people are leaving Côte d’Ivoire than arriving in recent times. The National Institute of Statistics (INS) uses a definition based on nationality. It considers a person who does not have Ivorian nationality to be an immigrant. According to this definition and census data from the country, immigrants represented 28% of the population in 1988, 26% in 1998, and 24% in 2014, suggesting a downward trend (INS, 2015).

The INS also provides the share of immigrants born in Côte d’Ivoire, and this share increases over time, from 43% in 1988, to 47% in 1998 and 59% in 2014. That is, about 2.3 million individuals living in Côte d’Ivoire, but not born in the country. The sex composition of the migrant population has remained stable over time as 56% of immigrants were men in 1988, 55% in 1998 and 2014.

According to the World Bank, which defines immigration by counting the number of people living in the country but born elsewhere, the number of immigrants in Côte d’Ivoire increased from 750,000 in 1960 to over 2.4 million in 2010. However, this increase in the number of immigrants hides a decline in immigration as a percentage of the population. This percentage, which was nearly 23% in 1970, decreased to 12% in 2010. The latest World Bank figures still estimate the number of immigrants at about 2.4 million in 2013, but confirm the downward trend of this number as a percentage of the population at 11% (World Bank, 2017).

According to the United Nations, immigration increased from 1.8 million (15% of the population) in 1990 to 2.3 million in 2015, or 9.6% of the population (UN DAES, 2015). A large majority of immigrants to Côte d’Ivoire come from another African country, particularly from the ECOWAS region. Those born in Burkina Faso accounted for about 60% of immigrants in the country in 2013, followed by immigrants from Mali who represented 16% (Fig. 10.1).

Fig. 10.1
figure 1

Distribution of immigrants by country of origin. (Source: Banque Mondiale, 2017)

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Because of the relatively open immigration policy that was instituted in the 1960s, strong economic growth, and high demand for labour in the agricultural sector, countries with similar agricultural labour were attracted to the opportunities and better wages in Côte d’Ivoire. As a result, the majority of immigrants come from a large number of West African countries, and many of them are seasonal workers who work part of the year in Côte d’Ivoire and the rest of the time in their country of origin, depending on the demand for labour (Neya, 2010). These seasonal immigrants are not always taken into account in the statistics.

2.1 Beyond the Plantation Economy: Other Migrants

Migrants from the West African region did not only work on plantations in farming. Some migrants also work as gardeners, domestic workers, cleaners and in other precarious jobs (Bartolomei, 2010; Riester, 2011). The coastal areas are also attractive destinations for migrants particularly from other coastal areas in the sub-region. Delaunay (1995) notes that out of an estimated 10,000 small-scale fishermen enumerated in the coastal areas in the country in 1989, between 8000 and 9000 traced their source to Ghana among Fante, Ewe and Ga people. The author also indicated a community of Ga fishers existed in parts of Abidjan since 1970s. The three Ghanaian ethnic groups lie in the coastal parts of Southern Ghana and therefore continue their livelihoods along the coast. Other fishers in the area were reported to have come from Liberia and Senegal. Another important wave of migration is the movement of pastoralists into the region starting from the 1960s which has been attributed to environmental crisis in the sahel (Tonah, 2003). Also important is the Côte d’Ivoire- Nigeria corridor which is sustained through trade (UNCTAD, 2018).

While women have migrated across the West African region for trade historically, permanent independent migration has been recorded. The feminisation of migration has also been increasing (Comoe, 2005). In Core D’Ivoire, it is reported that by the end of the 1980s, women constituted 63% of migration flows and 69% of rural-urban migrants. Internal migration is also characterised by North-South movement due to imbalance in development between the two locations. The coastal and forest areas in the South remained attractive due to relative disparities in development compared to the North.

3 Historical Analysis of the Factors That Influence Labour Migration Flows in Côte d’Ivoire

Immigration to Côte d’Ivoire began with a migration policy established by the colonial administration. Indeed, it was a massive call for labour from neighbouring colonies for the exploitation of agricultural resources in the forest zone (UN-DESA, 2009). In fact, the numerous coffee and cocoa plantations built under the orders of the colonial authorities from the east of the forest zone to the southwest promoted the expansion of the village plantation economy in Côte d’Ivoire during the 1930s and 1980s (Colin & Ruf, 2011).

As early as the 1930s, under colonial rule, immigration to Côte d’Ivoire began. It is the colonial adminstration that had created and maintained these migrations towards Côte d’Ivoire during all this period for the maximum exploitation of the cultural and natural potentialities of the colonial era. The colonial period generated another forced labour migration flows. This period spanned from 1893 to 1960 and was marked by high immigration. Indeed, the objective of the colonial administration  was to exploit migrant labour for infrastructural construction, agriculture and other developmental projects. For example, for major construction works, skilled labour from colonies such as Dahomey (now Benin), Guinea and Senegal were recruited. Thus, during the period up to the end of the World War II, nearly 2200 skilled workers were sent to Côte d’Ivoire to work on infrastructural projects (Semi Bi, 1976). In addition, forced agricultural labour came from neighbouring colonies namely Guinea, Upper Volta (now Burkina Faso) and French Sudan (now Mali). Overall, all of these different migration streams contributed to the rapid increase in the stock of immigrants in Côte d’Ivoire. In fact, according to the administrative records of this period, workers from present-day Burkina Faso were always the most numerous among the immigrants recruited each year. The evolution of immigrants during the colonial period before World War II is summarized in Fig. 10.2.

Fig. 10.2
figure 2

Migration trends. (Source: Authors based on data from Merabet, 2006)

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While immigration to Côte d’Ivoire, was forced prior to the Second World War period, it became more and more voluntary. Thus, despite abolition of forced labour in 1946, workers in what is now Burkina Faso were still immigrating in large numbers to Côte d’Ivoire. In addition, Merabet (2006) argues that since the end of the Second World War, the authoritarian power of the colonial administration had declined due to the gradual emancipation of the colonized people. A collaboration had thus been established between the colonizer and the colonized, particularly the best workers. This new situation, which no longer covered the employers, led them in 1951 to set up the Syndicat Interprofessionnel pour l’Acheminement de la Main-d’œuvre (SIAMO) created in 1951. The purpose of this union was to ensure the labour supply from Burkina Faso to Côte d’Ivoire (Traoré, 2021). Some of the results of this union show that as early as 1951, 50,000 Voltaics were recruited for the colonists, according to Deniel (1967). In addition, from 1951 to 1959, 60% of the 247,710 workers recruited to work in Côte d’Ivoire were recruited through SIAMO (Ministry of State, Ministry of Planning and Development 2007). From 1954 to 1959, 91% of this workforce was made up of Voltaic people (OECD/ILO, 2018).

In sum, during the colonial period, immigration was initially forced by the colonial administration in order to help with logging. In a second phase, after the end of the Second World War, immigration became voluntary. However, this period saw a strong increase in migration rates.

3.1 Labour Migration Laws and Agreements in Early Post-independence

The development model followed the colonial type of logging and development of cash crops during this period. In fact, the immigration policies in addition increase the need for foreign labour, propelled migration into the country during the 1960s. Migration into Côte d’Ivoire during the tenure of Félix Houphouët-Boigny, the first president was driven by an open door policy and an orthodoxy of migration. The president initiated several favourable policies to attract migrants for the economic development of the country. The policies were mainly based on the economic interest of Côte d’Ivoire. One of the most significant features is the liberal land ownership policies adopted which was popularized by its slogan “the land belongs to those that develop it” (Gonin, 1998: 174). To give impetus to this, customary land laws were abolished in so far as they stand in the way of development of the plantation economy (Heath, 1993). Another element is the citizenship and voting rights offered to immigrants. In addition, in 1961, the Ivorian Nationality Code allowed immigrants to obtain Ivorian nationality by a simple declaration before a civil register. However, this was repealed in 1972.

In 1960, Côte d’Ivoire signed a labour migration agreement with the Upper Volta (now Burkina Faso). This agreement stipulated that Ivorian employers who wanted to hire workers from Upper Volta had to hold work contracts drawn up in advance by the Ivorian Labour Service in collaboration with the Voltaic Labour Service (Burkina Faso). Under this agreement, approximately 3800 immigrants were recruited each year between 1961 and 1971 (compared to 20,000 Voltaic immigrants per year at the time of SIAMO). Thus, between 1961 and 1971, approximately 3800 immigrants were recruited each year. This labour force was essentially dedicated to agricultural and logging activities.

The independence of Côte d’Ivoire in 1960 had freed the country, and particularly the southwest, from colonial constraints. Subsequently, the end of the 1960s heralded a spectacular turning point in the history of this region with the launch in 1968 of a development plan to open up southwest part of the country. This plan included a proactive action by the state to create new agro-industrial poles (oil palm, citrus, rubber, etc.) and a viable communications network and a deep water port. These developments have led to a massive immigration of planters, in a vast movement of land colonization of forest areas, which accompany the expansion of coffee and cocoa crops from the east of the country (Balac, 2002).

In addition, Côte d’Ivoire had played a relatively important role in the export of agricultural products when it gained its independence from France in 1960. Wishing to capitalize on Côte d’Ivoire’s relative agricultural wealth, its first president, Félix Houphouët-Boigny, turned to a rather open immigration system. The increase in the labour force was intended to boost the agricultural economy and make Côte d’Ivoire a major exporter. The change in policy led to an unprecedented influx of immigrants into the country. These were mainly employed in the cocoa sector and came mostly from neighbouring countries (OCDE/CIRES, 2017). The composition of the current immigrant population reflects historical developments and the country’s geographic location. In 2014, more than 60% of immigrants in Côte d’Ivoire were thus born in Burkina Faso. In total, more than 85% of immigrants were born in neighbouring countries. Immigration from non-African countries is negligible, standing at 0.9% (INS, 2017).

During the first two decades of independence, Côte d’Ivoire experienced a strong period of economic growth, the “Ivorian miracle. From 1960 to 1979, gross domestic product (GDP) per capita increased by more than 90%. During this period, immigration evolved with the plantation economy as foreign labour was increasingly in demand. On the other hand, Côte d’Ivoire later experienced economic crises that reduced the immigration rate. In addition, several restrictions were put in place in order to not only regulate population growth but also to limit the acquisition of land by foreigners to the benefit of indigenes.

On 9th March 1960, Côte d’Ivoire and Burkina Faso signed a conventionFootnote 1 in respect of recruitment of labour migrants from the latter and their working conditions in the former. This was later abandoned in 1974 due to non-compliance on the part of the parties. Another labour migration convention was signed between the two countries in August 1973 but this also failed and Burkinabe immigrants migrated en masse to Côte d’Ivoire without recourse to the convention procedures.

In addition to agricultural labour, this newly independent country had educational needs. In fact, there was a lack of middle and high-level managers to design and implement programs for social development. Therefore, in 1961, Côte d’Ivoire signed a technical cooperation agreement with France in terms of staff. Between 2000 and 3000 foreign teachers joined the public sector in the early 1980s. Over time, the growth in demographics and the economic crisis from 1990 onwards led the Ivorian state to adopt a less open migration policy.

3.2 The 1980s Economic Down Turn and Nationalistic Laws

Described as the miracle Africain, the Côte d’Ivoire enjoyed two decades of steady growth until the early 1980s when world commodity prices particularly cocoa tumbled and severely affecting the economy of the cocoa and coffee export-led country. Another significant stressor was the 1983 drought which lowered the country’s GDP by 8%. The country soon experienced a major recession which affected both rural and urban economies. In urban areas, thousands of formal workers lost their jobs while the rippling effect was also felt by informal workers. With the squeezing of the opportunity space, migrants were blamed for taking the jobs of indigenes. An important feature during the period was the return of urban youth to rural areas. Meanwhile, earlier land policies favoured migrant land ownership which had a significant effect on land relations between migrants and indigenes. The structure also gave migrants a considerable hold on the rural economy in cash crop producing areas. The struggle over land resources and jobs and the general economic crisis cumulated in identity politics after the death of Félix Houphouët-Boigny in 1993. His successor, Henrie Konan Bédié introduced a new word – ivoirité, into the Ivorian national and civic discourse. The concept has been at the centre of criticism because it was deemed to target migrants who have lived and worked in the country for several decades.

From 1975 onwards, after several years of adopting a very liberal immigration policy, giving immigrants the “right” to access land, public jobs and participate in various elections, Côte d’Ivoire revised this policy considerably in response to demographic pressure, land scarcity, the economic crisis and the emerging multiparty system. More specifically, a series of measures have been taken to progressively restrict the rights of foreigners residing in Côte d’Ivoire.

These included the continuation of the policy of “ivoirisation” of certain senior administrative positions (1975), the identification of foreigners and the introduction of the residence permit (1990), the abolition of the right to vote for foreigners (1994) and the regulation of access to land ownership in 1998 (OCDE/CIRES, 2017: 57). In this context, three austerity policies were implemented in the 1990s. These were the introduction of the residence permit, the policy of “ivoirisation des cadres” and the law on rural land ownership.

The first text which, since independence, organizes the entry and stay of foreigners in Côte d’Ivoire is law n°90–437 of 29 May 1990. This law marks the beginning of a real migration policy by making the distinction between nationals and foreigners in its first article and introduces the foreigner’s residence permit in article 6. Indeed, the article stipulates that

Any foreigner over sixteen years of age must, if he or she stays in Côte d’Ivoire and after the expiration of a period of three months since his or her entry into the territory of Côte d’Ivoire, be provided with a residence permit…

This card is required for the performance and accomplishment of civil acts.

The latest text on migration management is Ordinance No. 2007-604 of November 8, 2007, which abolishes the residence permit. According to this ordinance, “foreigners who are nationals of ECOWAS countries living in Côte d’Ivoire must have identification documents issued by their country of origin or their consular representation” (art. 2), while foreigners from non-ECOWAS countries are required to have a residence permit if their stay is longer than 3 months.

The main motivation for migrants to Côte d’Ivoire between 1998 and 2006 was employment or job hunting (Konan, 2009; Merabet, 2006). Immigrants were said to have crowded out Ivoirians in the labour market. As a matter of fact, in 1975, foreigners occupied 52.5% of jobs (Centrale des bilans en 1975, 1980, 1985, cited by Brou & Charbit, 1994). That same year, the Political Bureau of the Democratic Party of Côte d’Ivoire (PDCI) created a commission to promote the Ivorianization of jobs. Two years later, the government created a ministry for the Ivoirisation of executives and promulgated a Charter for Ivoirisation in 1978. These measures were partly successful, with the rate of Ivoirisation rising from 58.4% in 1975 to 64.3% in 1985 (Brou & Charbit, 1994), but more in the administrative and commercial sectors than in industry (OECD/ILO, 2018: 45).

As a result of the Ivoirisation policy, foreigners were denied access to public employment in favour of nationals. This policy was followed by a process of identification of foreigners starting in 1990. Each foreigner was required to justify his or her stay in Côte d’Ivoire when it exceeded 3 months, by holding a residence permit. This identification facilitated the exclusion of foreigners from the electoral process (as candidates or voters) with the adoption of the new Electoral Code by Parliament in 1994, which recognized only nationals.

The emergence of the concept of “ivoirité” and its misuse have also crystallized the debates around immigrants. Ivoirité is a concept that promotes national preference, the privilege that should be given to nationals over immigrants in access to public jobs and rural land, among other things. Born under the regime of President Bédié, it has been abused and its mere mention during the armed crisis that broke out in 2002 was synonymous with xenophobia and exclusion. For some authors, one of the causes of the conflicts in Côte d’Ivoire is to be found in the use and political exploitation of this concept, particularly as a means of excluding foreigners, and even of excluding political opponents in electoral processes (Dabalen & Paul, 2012).

In this context, the political tensions resulting from the introduction of a multiparty system (1990) will be revealed and will interfere with the debate on the concept of Ivorian identity. Finally, the adoption of the land law in 1998 prohibited non-nationals from owning a land title. This called into question previously acquired rights and generated a new market, replacing the one where transactions were often made symbolically and on the basis of trust. This situation became detrimental to social cohesion since foreigners, especially Burkinabè migrants who are concentrated in the forest areas, are robbed of the land they had already acquired customarily and cultivated. This began a series of land conflicts in the rural areas (OCDE/CIRES, 2017: 57).

3.3 Military-Political and Post-electoral Crises of 2000s

Recent conflicts in Côte d’Ivoire, particularly since the early 2000s, have changed the nature of migration flows to and from the country. Many immigrants and their children born in Côte d’Ivoire have returned to their country of origin. At the same time, emigration from Côte d’Ivoire is on the rise. This reinforces the role of remittances, return migration and the diaspora in the country’s development. According to the United Nations Population Division (UNPD), the net migration rate (per 1000 people) has been consistently positive since the 1950s. It has always been between 5 and 12 per 1000, despite a drop to 2.2 between 1995 and 2000. However, the period 2000–2005, the country recorded a negative rate estimated at (−3.7) and (−1.4), for the period 2005–2010.

The combined effects of the political and economic crises have resulted in legislative changes that have had a significant impact on the evolution of migration flows. The period from the late 1990s to the early 2000s was a particularly unstable phase in the political and military history of Côte d’Ivoire. It was marked by the military assault of December 1999, the politico-military crisis of 2002 and the post-electoral crisis of 2011.

These developments contributed to an acceleration of the decline in the net migration rate, which had already begun in the 1970s. This is not only a decline in the flow of immigrants, but also a significant return migration. Several nationals from countries in the sub-region particularly Burkina Faso and from France, in particular, left the country. The Burkina Faso authorities estimated the number of returnees at 600,000 during the period 2002–04 (Kabbanji, 2011). However, once the immediate shock was over, some of them probably returned to Côte d’Ivoire.

As part of the resolution of the socio-political crisis that the country has experienced since 2002 and in an effort to address one of the causes of the crisis related to the situation of foreigners, various decrees have been issued to allow for some reintegration of foreigners. For example, in the area of land, the 1998 law that reserved access to land ownership for Ivoirians was amended in 2004, giving the right to transfer land titles to the heirs of the holders, even if they do not meet the conditions for access to ownership provided for by the law, i.e., being Ivorian. In addition, the law establishing the residence permit was repealed in 2007.

In the same vein, in August 2013, the Ivorian Parliament adopted the bill on the “special regime for the acquisition of nationality” which authorizes the Ivorian President to ratify the 1951 international convention on the protection of stateless people and the 1961 convention on the reduction of statelessness. This law allows people who lived in the territory of Côte d’Ivoire before 1961, those born in Côte d’Ivoire from 1961 to 1972, and their descendants born thereafter in the country to obtain Ivorian nationality by simple declaration (OCDE/CIRES, 2017: 58).

There are also political motivations linked to the relative stability of the country in a West African zone shaken by socio-political and sometimes military crises. The spontaneous nature and scale of refugee migration is also considered a destabilizing factor for host countries such as Côte d’Ivoire (Cissé & Fall, 2007). Despite the various crises, the country still attracts immigrants (De Vreyer et al., 2010).

4 Immigrants’ Access to Agricultural Land

The distribution of immigrants in the agricultural sector varies by country of birth. The majority of Burkinabés work in agriculture. In 2008, 68% were engaged in agriculture, animal husbandry or forestry. More specifically, 20% of them worked in food crops and 34% in cocoa farming. In contrast, only 11% were engaged in trade, and almost exclusively in retail trade. Ghanaians and Malians are almost equally divided between the agricultural and commercial sectors, with about one-third of their respective workforces working in each. Finally, immigrants from Guinea, Niger, and Nigeria are much more likely to work in the commerce sector (OECD/ILO, 2018: 105).

In the agricultural sector, the first waves of immigrants in the cocoa-producing areas enter agriculture in rural areas by benefiting from the hospitality of indigenous communities through a tutoring system. Tutoring is a mechanism based on a moral conception of the rights of foreigners (Koné, Ibo & Kouamé, 2005). In the Ivorian case, the tutor provides temporary or long-term accommodation to a stranger (someone who is not related to him or her). In the context of land tenure, the tutor is the one who hosts a stranger to whom he or she grants or transfers rights over a given space, a portion of forest or an old plantation, in exchange for remuneration in cash or in kind.

The village plantation economy in Côte d’Ivoire experienced its great pioneering phase between the 1930s and the 1980s, with increased clearing of the forest for coffee and cocoa plantations (Colin & Ruf, 2011). This clearing was deployed in the forest zone, from the east to the southwest. This dynamic was triggered by the arrival of migrants from regions that are ecologically unfavourable to these crops. These include people from the north and centre of Côte d’Ivoire as well as West Africans, mainly from the Upper Volta (now Burkina Faso), who gained access to land either through a tutor or through informal contracts.

Indeed, migrants once had access to land through the traditional institution of tutorship. In this “historical” approach, guardianship established a patronage relationship between indigenes and migrants, who were granted access to land on the basis of a principle of moral economy. According to this principle, every individual should have access to the resources necessary for his or her survival. The migrant had a duty of gratitude towards his guardian (passed on to his heirs) expressed through gifts of agricultural products, help with work hours and financial contributions at funerals among others (Chauveau, 2006).

Progressively, the monetization of the migrant’s “duty of recognition” has led to the significant development of informal land sales (Colin & Ayouz, 2006; Chauveau & Colin, 2010). In the history of events, the development of these sales can be situated at the turn of the 1970s and 1980s, partly as a result of accelerated migration in the southwest of the country (Ruf, 1988; Schwartz, 1993).

Subsequently, new modes of access to land in forest areas emerged and developed with the scarcity of land. These modes involved renting and sharecropping as a land relationship and not as a simple labour relationship. This practice was very dynamic for the cultivation of cassava (Colin, 2008) and, more recently, “Planter-Partager” (P&P) contracts. This type of contract, which is in full expansion, is known in West Africa and is practiced under various names depending on the country and ethnic group. Thus, through such a contract, a farmer gains access to a long-term right of use, or even a right of ownership of the land, by creating a perennial plantation and retaining part of it, the rest being returned to the landowner.

In Côte d’Ivoire, the abundant literature of the 1950s–1970s on the village plantation economy does not mention these contracts. According to Ruf (1988), the first observation of P&P cases dates from the early 1980s, but the author only mentions a few cases in the Centre-Ouest. Surveys conducted between 1990 and 1992 by De Fina (1995) identify such contracts in the southwest and centre-west, but characterize them as very marginal. The introduction of these contracts in the 1980s in the Southwest is confirmed by Léonard and Balac (2005). This practice re-emerged 20 years later. Indeed, since 2000, the monitoring of 700 farmers by the Centre for International Cooperation in Agricultural Research for Development (CIRAD) has made it possible to analyse the evolution of P&P or sharecropping. The new institutional arrangement exploded in the 2000s. It was found that 83% of P&P plots (86% of the area) were planted between 2000 and 2007 (Colin, 2008). In 2008, cocoa dominated among the different crops grown in P&P, followed by rubber, palm and cashew.

The integration of migrants into the agricultural sector in Côte d’Ivoire has led to a stimulation of economic activity. For example, according to Audibert et al. (2003), data on cotton producers from 700 households in the north of the country in 1997 and 1998 showed that agricultural production was more efficient in regions where there were more migrants. However, despite this economic advantage, the informal nature of migrant’s land access later resulted in community conflicts.

5 Child Labour in Côte d’Ivoire

Labour is a critical part of the social formations in peripheral commodity production economies. In plantation economies, labour types take different forms. In farm households, where the family is the principal unit of organisation of agricultural production, unpaid family labour particularly drawn from women and children is a very dominant feature of agricultural production. Feminist agrarian political economists through analysis of division of labour in agrarian households have detailed women’s roles in commodity production in the periphery. The literature on children’s work in peripheral economies is also expanding in tandem with global discourse about decent work and human rights (Anker, 2000; Griek et al., 2010). The prevalence of children in economies is also associated with family poverty and prevailing economic crisis in the general peripheral economy. During times of crisis, children serve multiple functions in households. They can be sent out to earn income for the family, hired to work for other families or work on the families’ enterprises particularly as substitutes for hired labour. Children also migrate independently due to poverty, to areas they can find work. The issue of independent child migration is a growing phenomenon.

In Côte d’Ivoire, where migrant labour is critical to the organisation of cocoa and coffee production, child labour is common. In 1998, a study in the country indicated that four in five children engaged in some form of work (Grootaert, 1999). The author linked this to the economic crisis in the 1980s which increased dependency on children’s labour for household production and in the planter economy. In urban areas, two-thirds of children between the ages of 7 and 17 were working in the survey year. However, the prevalence is high in Savannah regions in the country where poverty is higher and economic activity agrarian. Overall, the author found correlation between child work and poverty and gender where girls were found more often to be engaged in work than boys (Grootaert, 1999). An earlier study highlighted high child fosterage in the country where children live with families other than their own (World Bank, 1992). Migrant child labour was reported at the same time in Côte d’Ivoire. It was estimated that 15,000 Malian children were working on cocoa and coffee plantations in 1999 (USDOS, 1999). According to Schrage and Ewing (2005), a British Television station has documented the prevalence of child labour with children recruited from Burkina Faso, Togo and Mali to work on plantations. This has resulted in the signing of a bilateral agreement between Côte d’ Ivoire and Mali, one of the source regions of the migrant child labour in 2000.

6 Conclusion

Migration is a fundamental element in the history of Côte d’Ivoire. During the colonial period, immigration was initially forced by the colonial administration in order to develop the plantation economy. In a second phase, immigration became voluntary after the end of the Second World War before being self-sustained after independence by the Ivorian authorities.

Over time, the growth of the population and the economic crisis since 1990 have led the Ivorian state to practice a less open migration policy. Also, the recent conflicts that have taken place in Côte d’Ivoire, particularly since the early 2000s, have changed the nature of migration flows to the country. While the open immigration policy of the colonial period continued during the first three decades of independence, a tightening of the policy took place in the early 1990s, resulting in a relative decline in migration flows to Côte d’Ivoire.

Due to the relatively open immigration policy that was instituted in the 1960s, strong economic growth, and a high demand for labour in the agricultural sector, countries offering similar agricultural labour were attracted to Côte d’Ivoire by the better opportunities and wages.

Since its independence in 1960, its relatively open immigration policy has generated high levels of immigration to the country. Immigration continues to shape and define the country’s social and economic landscape. Despite the crisis, Côte d’Ivoire remains a place where immigrants have a higher probability of insertion, confirming the immigrant enclave hypothesis (Piché, 2013). The work of migrants in the agricultural sector in Côte d’Ivoire has induced a stimulation of economic activity. However, land conflicts have arisen from traditional or informal modes of access to land due to the drastic disappearance of the Ivorian forest heritage. As a result, the development of an appropriate migration policy necessarily requires in-depth knowledge of the history of migration and its socio-economic implications.