Aumen Journal of Moral Education in Africa

The United Nations Report on Migration in 2019, observes that the number of international migrants worldwide has continued to grow over the past seventeen years, reaching 272 million in 2019, up from 258 million in 2018, 248 million in 2015, 220 million in 2010, 191 million in 2005 and 173 million in 2000. Between 2000 and 2005, the international migrant stock grew by an average of 2 per cent per year. During the period 2005-2010, the annual growth rate accelerated, reaching 2.9 per cent. With the growth in the number of migrants, issues such as xenophobia have emerged on the front pages of human relationship at the international level, raising questions such as: How does my relationship with another affect my humanity? Does the issue of origin and identity affect and supersede the question of equality and dignity? Is the migrant less human than those who are not migrants? Is it possible to strike a balance between “what is good” and the “politics of fear”? The present work carves it niche by studying the phenomenon of xenophobia within the ecology of African philosophy of migration. For the purpose of this study, the complementary approach, which marks the identity of African philosophy, would be employed. Contrary to popular perspectives, to explain the phenomenon of xenophobia, the scape-goating theory would be patronized as a sociological theory for dissection of prejudice in a period of change and social transition.

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