Event recap
On June 27, the Africa Center, in partnership with the Policy Center for the New South, launched a joint new report titled “Migration dynamics in the Atlantic basin: Case studies from Morocco and Nigeria.” At the launch, a high-level panel of experts on migration discussed recent and upcoming trends in African migration.
Professor François Héran, chair of migrations and societies at Collège de France, opened the event with a keynote address, which was followed by a presentation by the report authors, Amal El Ouassif (senior international relations specialist at Policy Center for the New South) and Constance Berry Newman (nonresident senior fellow at the Africa Center), which was moderated by Africa Center Deputy Director Benjamin Mossberg.
Then, Africa Center Senior Director Rama Yade moderated a panel of experts including Osagie Imasogie, inaugural member of the President’s Advisory Council on African Diaspora Engagement in the United States; Andrew Selee, president of the Migration Policy Institute; and Lahra Smith, associate professor for the African Studies Program and Department of Government at Georgetown University.
In her introduction, Yade opened by emphasizing that tension around immigration has grown “in light of the projected doubling of Africa’s population by 2030.” She also stressed that “Africa remains underpopulated compared to Europe, which has a much higher population density.”
According to Héran, in his keynote address, the “panic that we have about African migration in Europe is completely exaggerated,” because over 70 percent of Sub-Saharan African migrants “migrate to another country in the Sub-Saharan region.”
El Ouassif noted that “Moroccan migration is the most dynamic in the Maghreb with about five million Moroccans who are currently residing abroad.” She also added that Moroccan migrants tend to stick to “traditional destinations” of migration: France, Spain, Belgium, and Italy.
Newman pointed out that “69 percent of Nigerians surveyed indicated to the Africa Polling Institute that they would like to relocate out of the country.” She added that Nigerians who have moved to Chicago, London, and cities in South Africa play a key role in sending remittances back to the country.
Newman noted that japa—a Yoruba word that mean to flee with panic, run, or escape—has become a common term to describe Nigerians’ desire to leave the country.
Imasogie highlighted how the expectations of assimilation or integration differ when migrants leave from anglophone or francophone countries and how that impacts the countries and experiences they might seek in migrating.
Selee noted that the African migrant community in the United States “is extremely well-educated; almost half of all African immigrants have a college degree.” Selee added that “there is a real need” for receiving countries “to create legal pathways” to facilitate migration for the benefit of both migrants and host country and allow people to integrate into the workforce quicker and avoid local pushback.
Selee suggested that some countries, like France and the United States, are stressed by immigration because there is a perception that migration drives economic change, cultural change, and disorder. Imasogie emphasized the similarities between historical European and African migration to the United States: both were driven in part by “major famine, oppression by the British, and political instability.”
Smith added that “if we push further for better movement of people and funds across borders, this will benefit African economies and societies.”
Smith said that Africans in the diaspora are still sending remittances back despite the precarity they face abroad. She also placed importance on the “remittance of ideas such as agricultural practices” which migrants bring home. These positive exchanges “will likely increase” as migration continues to accelerate.
Imasogie noted the importance of better communication between “Africans on the continent, Africans in the diaspora in the US, and African Americans who arrived in America during the period of enslavement,” and the importance of learning to understand each other outside of a “prism created by others.”
Smith suggested that “we should look at the AU for leadership on this mission.” She emphasized the importance of looking forward, instead of backward, regarding African development.
The panel concluded by recognizing the experience of refugee migrants, namely those affected by conflict in Sudan.
Sibi Nyaoga is a program assistant with the Atlantic Council’s Africa Center
Event description
Over the past twenty years, African migration experienced a sharp upwards trend with significant impacts on both sending and receiving countries. Most Africans choose to move to destinations within the African continent. For those leaving the continent, North America, Europe and the Middle East remain top external destinations for both legal and illegal migrants, including those seeking economic opportunity, education, and fleeing climate-related crises and conflicts across the continent. The tension around immigration has grown as Africa’s population is expected to double by 2050, with African youth making up 42 percent of the global youth population by 2030.
On the occasion of the launch of a new report titled “African Migration in the Atlantic basin: Case studies from Morocco and Nigeria” authored by Africa Center Senior Fellow Constance Berry Newman and Senior International Relations Specialist Amal El Ouassif from Policy Center for the New South, we bring together experts for a discussion on the opportunities, challenges, and the way forward for issues surrounding migration within and from the African continent in the twenty-first century.
Keynote address
François Héran
Migration & Societies Chair
Collège de France
Watch the full keynote address
Report Presentation by authors
Amal El Ouassif
Senior International Relations Specialist
Policy Center for the New South
Read biography
Amal El Ouassif is an international relations specialist at the Policy Center for the New South. Prior to this, she worked as a program coordinator at the Westminster Foundation for Democracy and served as a consultant in development policies with the office of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) in Morocco. She is also a former bluebook trainee in the Directorate General of Employment Social Affairs and Inclusion in the European Commission in Brussels. Amal has a Master of Arts in EU’s international relations and diplomacy studies, from the College of Europe in Bruges and a Master in Development Studies from UPMF-Grenoble. Her area of interest include Africa-Europe cooperation and migration.
MODERATED BY
Expert panel
Osagie Imasogie
Inaugural Member
President’s Advisory Council on African Diaspora Engagement in the United States
Andrew Selee
President
Migration Policy Institute
Lahra Smith
Associate Professor, African Studies Program and Department of Government
Georgetown University
MODERATED BY
In partnership with
Presented by
The Africa Center works to promote dynamic geopolitical partnerships with African states and to redirect US and European policy priorities toward strengthening security and bolstering economic growth and prosperity on the continent.
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