On 19 September the United Nations General Assembly hosted its first ever High-Level Summit to Address Large Movements of Refugees and Migrants with the aim of bringing countries together behind a more humane and coordinated approach to addressing the worst refugee crisis since the end of WWII. The summit provided an historic opportunity to develop a blueprint for a better international response. On the occasion of this meeting, UNAI asked researches at UNAI member institutions to submit articles highlighting their research and its implications in helping to solve this issue. Through this series, UNAI hopes to provide an understanding of refugee/migrant flows to its readers, highlight the importance of addressing refugee and migration flows in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and showcase the work of professors and researchers at UNAI institutions. Please note that the articles are for discussion, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations.
Aderanti Adepoju, Human Resources Development Centre, Lagos, Nigeria
Africa has been aptly described as a continent on the move. Africa today experiences all migratory configurations within and outside the continent but the most visible are labor migration, refugee flows and internal displacement.
Over 31 million Africans live outside the country of their birth, the majority within the African continent. In fact, the majority of migration is intra-regional or intra-African, especially in west and southern Africa, and only about 25 percent of African migrants go to Europe.
Although migration data is fragmentary, fluid and often imprecise, it is estimated that African migrants are overwhelmingly located within the eight sub-regional economic communities in Africa: 80 percent in the west , 65 percent in the south, 50 percent in central Africa and 47 percent in eastern Africa. The exception in northern Africa, where about 90 percent of its emigrants move to other localities outside Africa.
The views of the above article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Africa Speaks 4 Africa or its editorial team.