Working Paper 119 - Migration Patterns, Trends and Policy Issues in Africa

This paper documents the pattern, trend and determinants of migration in Africa using rich cross-country migration matrix data and household surveys from Burkina Faso, Ghana, Nigeria and Senegal. Results show that despite increase in the absolute number of migrants, Africa, particularly Sub-Saharan Africa has one of the lowest rate of emigration in the world and a majority of them migrate to other African countries signifying the importance of south-south migration. Poorer countries generally have lower rate of emigrationand higher rate of intra-African migrant. Bad socio-economic conditions generally seem to lead to higher rate of emigration by highly skilled individuals. Generally, migration is driven by motives to improve livelihoods with notable evidence on changes in labor market status. Often, self-employed or unemployed émigré ended up in wage employment. The paper outlines policy issues emerging from the migration trend in Africa.