The 4th International Migration and Mobility Conference (iMigMob 2025) was successfully held from 8 to 10 July 2025 at Penglais Campus, Aberystwyth University. This prominent conference brought together distinguished academics with diverse disciplinary perspectives, practitioners, and community members for important discussions on migration, mobilities, climate change, and their broader implications. It was organised in affiliation with the Royal Geographical Society with the Institute of British Geographers – Population Geography Research Group (RGS-IBG). iMigMob was launched in 2016 with a focus on the geographies of migration and mobility.
The three keynote presenters were Dr Giovanni Bettini, “Towards climate nomadism? Displacement, (im)mobilisation and escape in the face of planetary crises”; Professor Michaela Benson, “Migration and the making of ‘Global Britain’: state-making, statecraft in and through the migration-citizenship regime after Brexit” and Dr Sophie Cranston, “Categorising the Overseas Student: Settlement, Residence and Immigration”
Dr Yoseph Araya, Senior Lecturer at the Open University, and Dr Bereket Tsegay, PENHA Senior Researcher and Policy Analyst, contributed to the conference. Their presentation on the second day, titled “Harnessing Human Mobility in Lesotho: Rethinking its Internal and International Migration Dynamics for Sustainable Household Livelihood and National Development,” was based on their IOM-led consultancy project on Migration, Environment, and Climate Change (MECC), carried out from May to August 2024. In their contribution, both speakers emphasise Lesotho’s unique position within the expanding agenda of migration and climate change, highlighting the need for innovative thinking, policy measures, and regional collaboration to maximise benefits for Basotho families, the Lesotho economy, and the broader Southern African region.
Dr Yoseph Araya, Open University and Dr Bereket Tsegay, PENHA
See below for the summary of their presentation:
Human mobility has been the defining factor in the political and socio-economic landscape of Lesotho, a small, enclave country in Southern Africa. Human movement within its borders and beyond is high and dynamic, changing in nature, scale, and magnitude, particularly in tandem with changes in its economically advanced neighbour, South Africa. An estimated 400,000 citizens of Lesotho, from a total population of 2.3 million, are believed to be working and living abroad, with > 99% in South Africa. Mobility driving factors include environmental degradation, the adverse impacts of climate change, the closure of manufacturing plants, and the lack of local employment opportunities. Despite remittance comprising 21% of the GDP, the country lacks an institutional and policy framework to harness the opportunities migration can bring to its national development. To understand the interlinkages among migration, the environment, and climate change, a study was conducted by engaging over 80 representatives of local, national, and international organisations and community members through elite interviews and focus group discussions from May to July 2024. This systematic study identified the key bottlenecks for the migration dynamics in Lesotho, including the prevailing inadequate policy and institutional framework at the national level and bilateral framework with South Africa, the question of free movement of people between these two countries, the punitive measures migrants experience by the South African authorities and cross-border human trafficking. Furthermore, feminisation of migration, which started with the decline of South Africa’s mining sector, and transition to domestic work was identified alongside its unique challenges. Suggestions for rethinking and reforming the internal and international migration of Lesotho and its citizens that mutually benefit the political, socio-economic and cultural interdependencies of Lesotho and South Africa are made.
Both presenters thank IOM Lesotho and its staff, as well as the interviewees and group discussants who contributed to the national MECC Strategy document.
Group photo credit: Population Geography, 2025
