Swiss Capital in Africa as a Tool to Prevent Migration

The migration crisis that started in 2015 has become one of the most important socio-economic challenges for Europe. At the same time, solving the problems associated with it requires intervention not only within the countries receiving migrants/refugees, but also “at the farther reaches”, i.e. in Africa and the Middle East, where the main migration flows are formed. Switzerland is one of the largest investors in Africa, but not enough attention has been paid to its activities in the region in the academic literature. This paper analyses Switzerland’s strategies for Africa, examines the distribution of Swiss direct investment, official development assistance in Africa and the nature of the projects implemented. It concludes that Swiss capital is used as a tool to prevent migration in the regions closest to Europe (North Africa, the Greater Horn of Africa, the Sahel), but that has not led to significant positive changes. In addition, despite the declared fight against migration, one of the aspirations of both direct investment and official development assistance is to provide Swiss companies with access to the natural resources of African countries.

migration, migration crisis, international capital flows, foreign direct investment, official development assistance, Switzerland, Africa