Fragmentation of climate change-induced migration and its consequences : A case study of the African governance architecture

International law currently faces challenges of fragmentation, as regulations are adopted at varying levels parallelly. This has ambivalent consequences, like jurisdiction conflicts or niche regulations. Understanding the extent and consequences of fragmentation in a certain policy domain, such as the African climate migration governance, is therefore essential. Internal movements caused by climate change are predicted to reach up to 216 million people by 2050. Especially in Africa impacts and enforce climate migration. This thesis examines the current fragmentation of climate migration governance architecture in continental Africa, regarding differing understandings of migration and consequences, in a qualitative, exploratory case study. A structuring content analysis of five institutional agreements, classifies the governance architecture into a threefold typology of fragmentation by means of criteria established by Biermann et al. Subsequently, the consequences of fragmentation are explored through a qualitative assessment of advantages and disadvantages and three examples. While the African climate migration governance is still developing, to date it is composed cooperatively fragmented with diverging comprehensions of migration between the agreements and ambiguous consequences for migrants. From an institutional perspective, cooperative fragmentation can address specific needs individually while integrating institutions into a larger architecture.