Beyond the Forced-Voluntary Dichotomy: The Limits of Regional and National Legal Frameworks in Addressing Mixed Migration in the Horn of Africa

This dissertation examines the structural mismatch between contemporary migration governance and the empirical realities of human mobility in the Horn of Africa. While global, continental, sub-regional, and national legal and policy frameworks continue to rely on traditional, dichotomous categorisations – specifically the voluntary-forced and internal- international binaries – the regional migratory landscape is characterised by complex, multi- causal flows of mixed migrants. Driven by the intertwined pressures of armed conflict, political violence, climate-induced environmental stress, and structural economic underdevelopment, individuals move along fluid continuums that resist rigid classification. Adopting an interpretivist qualitative research design, this study combines a systematic literature review, policy and legal framework analysis, and a comparative case-study methodology focusing on Somalia and Eritrea. The empirical findings reveal that over-reliance on static categories creates severe, systematic protection gaps, effectively trapping vulnerable populations in a state of high precarity. Ultimately, this dissertation synthesises these gaps to advance an integrated analytical framework, offering recommendations to rethink migration responses beyond the binary trap.