You make a good point. I don’t think governments have a secret plan to avoid freedom of movement, but it is happening.
The Nordic countries have free movement. It began in the 60s or so. Any citizen from a Nordic country is allowed to settle, work, get married, get universal healthcare, get social benefits, etc. in any of the other Nordic countries. That’s beautiful, but it’s not as easy as it used to be…
Legally we still have the right, but technology has made it much more difficult, because every country has their own individual system used for online identification, and with every official form being required to be signed electronically it has become difficult. The thing is that you can’t (easily) get the online signature without registering as a citizen in the specific country.
I remember doing my accounting job just ten years ago. I used to sign off on VAT and tax returns worldwide on paper. Didn’t matter if it was UK, Norway, Germany or Australia. A signature on paper was enough. These days I can’t even file my own personal income report if it occurred in Sweden, because I’m not a Swedish citizen.
It’s getting better though. More services in different countries accept the digital signatures from other countries, but it’s still a shit show of random chances.
Now this isn’t about African immigrants, but the solution is. I wish that EU and the Schengen Area would get the shit together and sort out an electronic worldwide identification system. This would solve a lot, because many of the African countries are still connected to their former colonies in this official way, just as the Commonwealth is. Having the Schengen Area work together on this would basically solve a lot of the obstacles in the way of freedom of movement.