Increased Informal Migration within Africa

• The United Nations (UN) estimates that Africa saw a 25-percent growth of African migrants (excluding refugees and asylum seekers) living in another African country over the last decade (from 12 million in 2015 to 15 million in 2024). While likely an undercount given its informal nature, nearly all internal Africa migration is labor migration in one form or another. This includes seasonal labor movements as well as permanent resettlements in search of livelihoods, typically in urban economic hubs.

• Almost half of all Africans have considered emigrating.

  Given ongoing push factors of unaccountable governance and limited job opportunities in the face of rising youth populations, Afrobarometer surveys indicate almost half of all Africans have considered emigrating—a significant increase compared to the proportion recorded in 2016/2018.

• With Africa’s population predicted to grow by 70 percent by 2050 (to 2.4 billion people), this migratory pressure can be expected to continue—shifting the security, economic, and governance dynamics in each subregion.

West and Central Africa

• About 70 percent of the migration flows across West and Central Africa involve temporary, seasonal, and permanent migration of workers, with economic hubs such as Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, and Nigeria the key destinations.
• Côte d’Ivoire, illustratively, hosts more than 8 million migrants from Burkina Faso, 402,000 from Mali, and 112,000 from Guinea.
• In addition to heavy-handed governance, the loss of jobs due to a lack of protection of a country’s natural resources is another main driver in this region. It is estimated that illegal, unregulated, and unreported (IUU) fishing is costing countries in the region around 0.26 percent of their gross domestic products (GDPs). This translates into the loss of an estimated 30,000 livelihoods, while pushing another 140,000 people deeper into poverty.