Continental Migration Trends: Its Implications from an African Perspective

Abstract

Migration is witnessed throughout the world, this is even true for a third world continent such as Africa, where individuals tend to move from one place to another propelled by diverse push and pull factors. This paper brings forward the degree of migration movements in Africa. Additionally, it seeks to understand the impact(s) of migration within the continent. It argues that migration in Africa is not a new phenomenon as it has been witnessed since colonialism often as a result of forced migration. However, post the colonial era, Africa has observed an upsurge of migration movements both documented and undocumented. This is manifested by the fact that Africa has remained an underdeveloped continent coupled with vast economic hindrances including unemployment, political instability, low growth rates, terrorism and corruption. In this vein, individuals move from place to place for better economic opportunities for themselves particularly to Western, Eastern and Southern African countries such as Nigeria, Ghana, Botswana, South Africa, Ivory Coast, Angola, Rwanda and Namibia. The paper concludes by outlining that if Africa is to limit and manage the evergrowing migration movements, then African heads of states should possibly improve their border patrol security, enhance rural agriculture and improve rural service delivery programmes. Moreover, to implement robust, well monitored and managed policies that intend to support and complement the policies of the African Union (AU), regional bodies and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s) with regards to African migration.