Migration and the Path to a More Integrated Africa

We live in a world of unprecedented global migrations.Unlike many past largescale migrations, driven by state-sponsored colonizing projects, many of today's migrants are either fleeing trouble at home or chasing better opportunities abroad.African economies endowed with young populations are often both the producers and receivers of migrants.According to recent Afrobarometer surveys, an average of 47 percent of young Africans across twenty-four countries polled expressed a desire to migrate to greener economic pastures.In sixteen of these countries, the desire to migrate has increased by 6 percent or more over the past eight years.But while North America and Western Europe are top destinations of choice, close to a quarter of these young Africans expressed a desire to migrate to other African countries (Afrobarometer, 2024).In fact, given the difficulty and cost of migration to the Global North, most Africans who do migrate do so regionally, with about 70 percent of migrants remaining on the continent (The Economist, 2021).Most migration in the world is intraregional, contrary to what one might expect.Africa is one of the smallest producers of migrants (with most of these going to other African countries as noted above) and Europe is both the greatest producer and recipient of migrants, with about 50 percent of these migrations being intra-European (UN DESA, 2025).The rise in migration has had contradictory effects.On the one hand, it has led to an unprecedented exchange of cultures across the world.Today, any major city regardless of continent boasts access to foods, languages, and arts from across the world.These are often found in migrant enclaves, whether it be one of the ubiquitous China towns (like the one recently established in Nairobi) or Little Africa (also known as Chocolate City) in Guangzhou, China.But these trappings of migration do not remain in their enclaves.Often they feed into local communities, enriching these communities and creating new versions of local culture.The contributions of migrant diasporas to their new countries go even further.For example, every migrant worker in South Africa creates two jobs for citizens (Mbiyozo, 2026).Migrants also contribute significantly to their countries of origin.This happens through ideas and skills transferred home and demand for culturally specific goods that can often be the basis of increased exports from their home country, not to mention the remittances they send back.In many lower-income countries, these remittances boost national economies, even surpassing the leading exports, foreign direct investment (FDI), or foreign aid, which traditionally have been the main sources of foreign exchange.Nowhere are the two-way impacts of diasporas better represented than in the recently completed