E.g., 04/16/2024
E.g., 04/16/2024
Africa (sub-Saharan)

Africa (sub-Saharan)

Beyond intraregional migration, sub-Saharan Africans migrate to North Africa, Europe, North America, and beyond. The research offered here focuses generally on two aspects of sub-Saharan migration: the outcomes for these migrants and their children once they have settled in their countries of destination, the United States among them, and the roles that diasporas and development policies can play in the economic improvement of these African nations.

A woman in Nigeria smiles while using her mobile phone
Reports

Leaving No One Behind: Inclusive Fintech for Remittances

Remittances are a vital lifeline for migrants’ families around the world and an important source of revenue for many low- and middle-income countries, especially in times of crisis. As more people turn to digital financial technologies for these money transfers, this shift holds the potential to shake up the rigid remittance industry and boost development benefits. But it also brings new challenges, as this report explores.

Motorcyclists and pedestrians travel a road between buildings in Arua, Uganda
Reports

Migration and Displacement in Secondary Cities: Insights from Côte d’Ivoire and Uganda

Small and mid-sized cities are some of the fastest growing in many parts of the world, including sub-Saharan Africa. Yet life in these cities can present a variety of challenges for migrants and displaced persons. This report examines these challenges in secondary cities in Côte d’Ivoire and Uganda, and how local, national, and civil-society actors are working to address them.

Recent Activity

DirectRelief MalawiMangochiDistrict Flickr
Articles
October 21, 2015
The Emigration of Health-Care Workers: Malawi’s Recurring Challenges
By Pauline Vidal
Pages from Covers Birman
Reports
October 2015
The Academic Engagement of Newly Arriving Somali Bantu Students in a U.S. Elementary School
By  Dina Birman and Nellie Tran
FE ChineseZambia ChingKwanLee cover
Articles
February 20, 2015
Following the Money: Chinese Labor Migration to Zambia
By Hannah Postel
Cover Top10 1Refugees UNHCR
Articles
December 18, 2014
World Confronts Largest Humanitarian Crisis since WWII
By Marissa Esthimer
Cover Top10 4Ebola
Articles
December 16, 2014
Building Borders around Ebola
By Rebecca Kilberg
FE TPS July2014 Haiti
Articles
July 2, 2014
Temporary Protected Status in the United States: A Grant of Humanitarian Relief that Is Less than Permanent
By Madeline Messick, Claire Bergeron
Bangui Airport
Articles
June 19, 2014
A Forgotten Crisis: Displacement in the Central African Republic
By Hannes M. Einsporn
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Commentaries
October 2013
The Lampedusa Tragedy Prompts the Question: Does the UN Have Any Impact on the World’s Migrants?
By  Kathleen Newland

Pages

Feature
March 4, 2010
Climate Change and Migration: Sorting through Complex Issues without the Hype

Numerous researchers and organizations have predicted that climate change will trigger historically unprecedented waves of mass migration. MPI's Carolina Fritz examines the complex links between climate change and migration, how and where these links influence current and future migration patterns, and some of the problems with predicting future flows.

Top Ten
December 1, 2009
Some Relief for Immigrants in the Developing World

South Africa, Brazil, and Costa Rica—all destinations for migrants from the region—sought to make the lives of immigrants a little better in 2009.

Feature
August 6, 2008
China and Africa: Stronger Economic Ties Mean More Migration

Along with increased trade and Chinese investment in Africa has come new migration between the two regions. Malia Politzer places this movement in context and looks at the types of Chinese migrants going to Africa and the Africans going to China.

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Profile
July 28, 2008
South Africa: Policy in the Face of Xenophobia
South Africa is struggling to define a post-apartheid migration policy that is responsive to its changing role in Africa, the relationship between migration and development, and the country's rampant xenophobia, seen most graphically in May 2008. Jonathan Crush of the Southern African Migration Project reports on the latest developments.
Top Ten
December 1, 2006
Darfur Situation Worsens, Violence Spreads to Chad

Since 2003, at least 200,000 people by UN estimates have been killed in Sudan's Darfur region, and more than two million have been displaced. Unfortunately, 2006 brought the crisis to new depths as the ethnic violence continued and spread into neighboring Chad. The number of refugees and internally displaced has grown, heightening concerns about destabilization in Chad and the Central African Republic.

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Recent Activity

Articles
October 21, 2015

The Emigration of Health-Care Workers: Malawi’s Recurring Challenges

The emigration of health-care professionals from Malawi led to drastic labor shortages in the impoverished nation in the early 2000s. To combat this brain drain, the government launched an action plan that has largely stabilized the outflow. However, human resource challenges to Malawi's health-care system remain acute and complex, as discussed in this feature article.

Reports
October 2015

The Academic Engagement of Newly Arriving Somali Bantu Students in a U.S. Elementary School

Refugee students with interrupted or limited formal education (LFE) face particular difficulties in adjusting to U.S. schools. This study illustrates the difficulties faced by Somali Bantu refugee students who came to the United States with no schooling, and the pressures placed on teachers and other staff in a Chicago elementary school.

Articles
February 20, 2015

Following the Money: Chinese Labor Migration to Zambia

Migration has begun to follow the flow of capital after years of Chinese investment in major infrastructure projects in Zambia. This feature article, based on original research including the coding of 25,000 Zambian entry permits, examines the emerging migration pattern from China to Zambia, as Chinese migration to the country has increased 60 percent since 2009.

Articles
December 18, 2014

World Confronts Largest Humanitarian Crisis since WWII

The number of people around the world forcibly displaced by conflict or persecution reached its highest total since World War II, with more than 51.2 million fleeing their country or displaced within it, the UN refugee agency reported in 2014. An estimated 13.6 million people have been displaced by conflicts in Syria and Iraq alone, constituting what the UN High Commissioner for Refugees dubbed a mega-crisis.

Articles
December 16, 2014

Building Borders around Ebola

Fears regarding the spread of the deadly Ebola virus following an outbreak in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone prompted governments around the world to regulate travel from and within West Africa. Travel bans, airport health screenings, closed borders, and traveler quarantines were among the policies implemented. International organizations argue such restrictions drive possibly symptomatic travelers to illegally bypass borders and encourage dishonesty in the exit screening process.

Articles
July 2, 2014

Temporary Protected Status in the United States: A Grant of Humanitarian Relief that Is Less than Permanent

From a massive typhoon in the Philippines last November to the ongoing civil war in Syria, recent global events demonstrate that natural disasters and political strife occur suddenly and often without warning. This article examines the U.S. Temporary Protected Status (TPS) program that grants humanitarian relief to nationals of certain countries embroiled in violent conflict or recovering from natural disaster.
Articles
June 19, 2014

A Forgotten Crisis: Displacement in the Central African Republic

The humanitarian crisis unfolding in the Central African Republic (CAR) has received scant world attention, even as more than 20 percent of the population of 4.25 million has been displaced as a result of deadly sectarian violence. This article examines the causes of the violence, the international community response, and the impacts of large-scale displacement within the country and beyond its borders.
Commentaries
October 2013

The Lampedusa Tragedy Prompts the Question: Does the UN Have Any Impact on the World’s Migrants?

As hundreds of migrants were drowning in the Mediterranean, the United Nations General Assembly was hours from gathering for only the second time in its history to address international migration. The juxtaposition threw a question into sharp relief: does the world body have any impact on the world’s migrants?

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