2023-12-18 09:35:04
December 18 marks International Migrants Day, established in 2000 by the United Nations, providing an opportunity to challenge certain preconceived ideas, particularly regarding African migration, while providing quantitative data.
Globally, international migration remains stable as a proportion of the world’s population. Currently, there are 280 million international migrants, i.e. individuals residing in a country other than their place of birth, representing less than 4% of the world population. This percentage has remained unchanged since the 1960s.
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Another significant figure reveals that there are more European migrants than African migrants. Although the number of African migrants now reaches 40 million, an increase of 30% since 2010, European migrants are more numerous in absolute terms and in proportion to their demographics. Flore Gubert, research director at the Research Institute for Development and deputy director of the Convergences Migrations Institute, emphasizes that Africa represents 16% of the world population but only 14% of migrants, while Europe, with 10% of the world population, constitutes almost 24% of international migration.
An important characteristic of African migrations is their mainly internal nature within the continent. West African migrants, for example, mainly head to other West African countries. Flore Gubert explains that out of 100 Africans leaving their country from West Africa, 70 choose to stay in Africa, most favoring a country in the sub-region. Only 15 are heading to Europe, and six to North America.
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The motivations for African migrations are mainly economic, exceeding 80%. This has positive spillover effects for the host country by filling labor gaps, and for the sending country, receiving remittances which have seen steady growth since 2021 in Africa ($50 billion per year). This amount represents 1.5 times the foreign investments which decreased during the same period.
As for illegal African migrants, these are mainly people who entered with a visa but were unable to renew it. The proportion of African migrants taking makeshift boats to Europe remains very low, but the number of victims remains too high, exceeding 27,000 dead or missing at sea over the last ten years.
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