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 

By CHRISTABEL LIGAMI

In Summary

• 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.

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• East, North Africa have lowest migration inflows, says report

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.

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