This second Report 2019 commissioned by the Migrants & Refugees Section of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development and compiled by the Scalabrini Institute for Human Mobility in Africa (SIHMA) follows the first edition of 2017.
SIHMA is a non-profit organization and research centre that was established in South Africa by the Missionaries of St. Charles Scalabrinians, a Congregation of the Catholic Church devoted to the care of migrants, refugees, and seafarers. With its wide network of stakeholders, SIHMA is able to monitor major aspects of the migratory phenomenon and plays a key role of mediation between academic research and the work of civil society in this field.
This 2019 edition not only offers an update on the data, such as a chronological sequence, but also presents a first step towards the development of a more elaborate and comprehensive approach to interpreting human mobility and the responses of Catholic organisations in the continent. This double contribution is reflected in the methodology that was used for compiling this report, especially in the instrument that was used for the collection and subsequent interpretation of data. The previous questionnaire identified three different target groups (refugees and displaced people, internal migrants, and victims of human trafficking) and was aimed at collecting information on each group according to the types of services offered, the number of staff and volunteers involved in the different activities, and the total cost of the various projects. The new questionnaire included a wide range of questions, probed for details about the different programmes and activities, and allowed for a more specific description of the kinds of assistance being offered to people who are on the move. For the respondents, the possibility of completing the survey online using a dedicated platform offered them greater practicality and speed of response, and for the researchers a guarantee of uniformity and ease of data comparison and sharing.
