Emigration Dynamics in Developing Countries: v. 1 Sub-Saharan Africa

IOM's research project on emigration dynamics in developing countries launched in 1993, brought together teams of researchers in four regions of the developing world: Sub-Saharan Africa; South Asia; the Arab region; and Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean. This volume contains research from the Sub-Saharan Africa region exploring the economic, demographic, political and ecological conditions, and policy implications. The research conducted in selected sub-regions emphasized the complexity of emigration dynamics. Diverse stages of development, colonial heritage, ethnic base, rapid population growth, ecological deterioration, war, political oppression, dearth of human rights, and low declining per capita incomes had combined in different ways in different countries to become major precipitators of specific migrations. In parts of Sub-Saharan Africa, many people were compelled to emigrate because political, economic and environmental conditions had fallen below a certain critical threshold. The research concluded that a global African migration system was needed for the region.