Migration in Southern Africa is a historically entrenched and rapidly evolving phenomenon that continues to shape the region’s socio-economic, political, and environmental landscapes. This narrative review critically synthesizes contemporary migration dynamics across the Southern African Development Community (SADC), highlighting the complex interplay of intra- and extra-regional flows, shifting governance regimes, and emerging opportunities. Drawing on an interdisciplinary body of literature and grounded in classical and contemporary migration theories—including the Push-Pull Model, New Economics of Labor Migration (NELM), Network Theory, Dual Labour Market Theory, Structuralism, and Transnationalism—the chapter explores how historical labor systems, economic asymmetries, political instability, climate volatility, and globalization produced a polycentric and multi-directional migration regime. Despite SADC’s efforts to promote regional integration through frameworks such as the Protocol on the Facilitation of Movement of Persons, regional migration governance remains fragmented, securitized, and state-centric. This led to a persistent disjuncture between policy rhetoric and practice, compounded by nationalism, weak implementation capacity, and inadequate data infrastructures. Migrants, however, display considerable agency and resilience, using migration as a household livelihood strategy and sustaining transnational social and economic ties across borders. Remittances, informal trade, and diasporic networks contribute significantly to local and national economies, yet undocumented migrants continue to face systemic exclusion, xenophobic violence, and limited access to services, especially in urban informal settlements. The review also interrogates the geopolitics of xenophobia, the marginalization of local governments in migration governance, and the challenges of irregular migration, brain drain, and climate-induced displacement. It argues for a paradigm shift toward rights-based, development-oriented, and multi-scalar governance frameworks that include subnational actors and recognize migration as a driver of resilience, adaptation, and regional transformation. The study contributes a holistic, theoretically grounded synthesis of Southern African migration, bridging disciplinary silos and introducing migrant-centered perspectives that are often overlooked in policy discourse. It concludes by calling for strengthened regional cooperation, more robust data systems, and further empirical research on migrant agency, climate mobility, and the integration of migration into urban, environmental, and development policy frameworks.