East, North Africa have lowest migration inflows, says report
Travellers wait to clear with Immigration at the Gatuna border post in Rwanda. East and North African countries have the lowest migration inflows on the continent, according to a recent report that puts West African countries at the top. PHOTO | FILE
What you need to know:
The report titled International Migration in Africa: Issues, Opportunities and Challenges, shows that within the continent, migration movements are dominated by nationals of countries within the same region — close to 90 per cent in West Africa, 65 per cent in Southern Africa, 50 per cent in Central Africa, 47 per cent in East Africa, and only 20 per cent in North Africa.
The brain drain is particularly acute for small countries and island states with more than half of all highly educated migrants from Africa currently living in the US, Germany, Britain, France, Canada, Australia and Spain.
About 31 million Africans — 3 per cent of the continent’s population — have migrated internationally.
East and North African countries have the lowest migration inflows on the continent, according to a recent report that puts West African countries at the top.
The report titled International Migration in Africa: Issues, Opportunities and Challenges, shows that within the continent, migration movements are dominated by nationals of countries within the same region — close to 90 per cent in West Africa, 65 per cent in Southern Africa, 50 per cent in Central Africa, 47 per cent in East Africa, and only 20 per cent in North Africa.
However, only about 25 per cent of migrants from Africa go to Europe, whereas nearly twice that number migrate to other countries in Africa.
According to the report, migration of the highly educated is not all about brain drain. Governed fairly, it can enhance socio-economic progress both in their countries of origin and destination.
“Migration broadens the opportunities available to individuals and is a crucial means of broadening access to resources and reducing poverty,” said Takyiwaa Manuk, director of the Economic Commission for Africa’s social development policy division.
An earlier ECA study shows that remittance inflows to Africa quadrupled between 1990 and 2010, reaching nearly $49 billion in 2010. This is equivalent to, on average, 2.6 per cent of Africa’s GDP.
The brain drain is particularly acute for small countries and island states with more than half of all highly educated migrants from Africa currently living in the US, Germany, Britain, France, Canada, Australia and Spain.
Many African countries — Burundi, Lesotho, Malawi, Maldives, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Papua New Guinea, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe — had emigration rates for the highly skilled that were more than 20 times their overall emigration rates.
Cameroon, Ghana, Kenya, Morocco and Senegal also had significant emigration rates of people with a tertiary education, about 15 times higher than for total emigration.
The mobility of the highly educated is also reflected in the large numbers of students from African countries studying in developed nations.
African Union Commissioner Moustapha Kaloko said that migration offers more opportunities than challenges.
“There is a need to incorporate migration into national and regional development policies, strategies and programmes to make Africa an attractive continent capable of holding on its sons and daughters and even attracting back home those who have already left,” said Mr Kaloko.
The report, presented at the African Development Week in Addis Ababa that opened on March 31, notes that about 31 million Africans — 3 per cent of the continent’s population — have migrated internationally. More than half of those migrating internationally do so within Africa, with only about 28 per cent of migrants from Africa going to Europe.
“The intra-regional, local movement is also reflected in Africa’s forced migrations, which are inextricably linked to African conflict. But most of Africa’s refugees are not crossing the Mediterranean,” notes the report.
Out of 3.7 million African refugees, nearly three–quarters are hosted in East and Horn of Africa alone. Another 12 million are internally displaced persons.
Ms Manuk said that recent media coverage and research on irregular migration as well as the high death toll among those crossing the Mediterranean have falsely reinforced the belief that African migration is essentially directed towards Europe.
“Migration streams within Africa are much larger than those out of Africa,” she said, adding that migration has huge implications for poverty reduction via the billions of dollars remitted that contribute to savings, investment, the wellbeing of persons, improved resilience, creation of jobs and services.
For Africa, international migration plays a critical role in the continent’s struggle to develop and improve welfare, peace and stability and provide jobs for its growing population. Thus, countries must take stock of the key issues, come up with a common position on international migration and development and join the international community as equal partners to forge a mechanism for efficient management of international migration.
Migration is also part of the transformative development agenda for Africa, where issues of equity and inclusion have been given high prominence.
According to Mariama Awumbila, a professor at the Centre for Migration Studies at the University of Ghana, migration has gained in momentum and occurs in various ways and for differing reasons.
He deplored the absence of reliable data and documents on international migration in most of the countries involved which, according to him, is a fundamental problem to be addressed through strengthening statistical offices that provide information on migration.
“African migration is no longer just about African migrants. Driven by the Eurozone crisis, some Portuguese nationals have undertaken reverse migration, returning to Angola and Mozambique in search of economic opportunity. More significantly, at least a million Chinese citizens now live in Africa,” said Prof Awumbila.
