A threat for Europe, an opportunity for Africa. Figures and words reveal the divergent perceptions of the immigration phenomenon.
If today the African population is over 1.2 billion, by 2050 it is set to exceed 2.4 billion and by the end of the century, 4.5 billion. According to the Italian Ministry of the Interior, during the first 6 months of this year 9,327 Africans arrived in Italy, proportionally 0.000007% of the continent’s population of 1.2 billion. In total in 2017 there were 61,285 immigrants that crossed the Mediterranean to reach Italy, of these, around 58,000 arrived from Libya and therefore, were prevalently citizens of African countries. Such numbers represent approximately 0.004% of the African population. During the same period, according to data published in June 2018 by UNCTAD (the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development), the total number of internal African migrants was 20 million, or 1.6% of the continent’s population. Seen in this way, for every 100 Africans that migrate, less than one arrives in Europe. If more than 95% of African migrants choose to head to another African country, why are they the source of so much concern in Europe and why is the repatriation of African immigrants such a priority for the continent’s governments? Many African countries are dealing with humanitarian emergencies linked to conflicts or tensions with neighbouring states, which in just a few months have led to the displacement of more than one million refugees. How is it possible, in the face of such massive population movements, to represent a few hundreds or at most thousands of repatriations each year as a priority?
The different perceptions of the issue of migration between the two shores of the Mediterranean concern not only the numbers, but also the different perspectives. While in Europe the issue is surrounded by alarmism, fear, anxiety and to a certain extent, fully-fledged phobias, in Africa there is more focus on the positive effects that the continent’s internal and external mobility is capable of bringing. The above-mentioned UNCTAD report, for example, has an emblematic title “Migration for Structural Transformation”. The almost 20 million African citizens that in 2017 decided to migrate within the continent represent, in fact, according to the UN office, a “phenomenon that has the potential to promote economic growth and productivity”. The study, the first to perform a detailed examination of the issue of internal migration on the continent and its economic impact, highlights how these population movements have a positive impact both for the source countries and the destination countries. UNCTAD estimates, in fact, that migrations, if managed effectively, can contribute to increasing the continent’s average earnings from 2,008 dollars in 2016 to 3,249 dollars in 2030. According to UNCTAD, the contribution from migrants has a fundamental importance for the economic growth of the destination countries because it is there that an average of 85% of migrants’ earnings are spent: thus in Ivory Coast at least 19% of GDP is linked to the contribution of people that originate from other countries, in Rwanda this figure is 13% and in South Africa 9%. But aside from the quantitative aspect, the report underlined the qualitative aspects of migration and the positive effects on social and economic development beginning with the improvements in professional skills that the movement of workers creates. “Population movements across borders often offers individuals the chance of a better life,” explained the Secretary General of UNCTAD, Mukhisa Kituyi. “Yet much of the public discourse, particularly as it relates to international African migration, is rife with misconceptions that have become part of a divisive, misleading and harmful narrative.”
In addition to this aspect there is another factor: the remittances sent home by migrants. For years now, the flow of money that African migrants send home each year has represented the main influx of funds for the continent. With an average of over 60 billion dollars annually in the last decade, migrants’ remittances now outweigh development aid and direct foreign investment. From an economic point of view, the rapid increases seen in the figures relating to Africa is of great interest. In 2017 remittances sent to Sub-Saharan Africa alone rose to 37.8 billion dollars, according to the World Bank and this sum is forecast to reach 39.2 billion dollars this year and 39.6 billion in 2019. Nigeria alone received 22.3 billion dollars in remittances in 2017. In Liberia, last year remittances contributed 25.9% of GDP, the highest proportion in all of Africa. On the topic of African remittances, for many years the World Bank has been conducting a battle for fair treatment of funds transferred home by Africa’s foreign workers, a campaign that has been almost entirely ignored by Europe. The companies that manage the international money transfer services have average global costs of around 5%, which rise inexplicably to almost 10% when the same amount is transferred to any African country.
To explain the current situation even more clearly: if for every Guatemalan migrant that sends 200 dollars back to their family it costs 10 dollars, for an African to do the same, it costs around 20 dollars. The cost of money transfers within the continent is even higher, oscillating between an average of 15/20%. The reasons for this disparity lie in the absence of any real competition in this sector: more than 60% of all remittances to Africa pass through just two large and well known international money transfer operators.
“Usually remittances are used to buy food, pay for health services or education, so they are put aside like savings and once the priorities for survival or for possible emergencies have been taken care of, they are invested in financing small scale businesses,” explained the then director of the African Union’s Commission for Social Affairs, Olawale Maiyegun, in an interview with the Italian publication Africa e Affari (Africa and Business). “For Africa, remittances represent a constantly growing source of finance and one with immense potential. They have become a fundamental source of funding for development in Africa. Migrations support the more advanced economies through the provision of a workforce and, thanks to remittances, generate a virtuous movement of capital that also benefits other economies. Furthermore, remittances are crucial as a source of foreign currency, which usually supports international trade and improves the balance of payments for individual countries. In order to understand this better, it’s sufficient to underline that in some African countries’ remittances represent more than 40% of the export value and important percentage shares of GDP
It seems clear therefore how both the statistics and the perceptions of the phenomenon of immigration between the two shores of the Mediterranean could not be more distant. Nevertheless, there are some points of intersection. In order to assuage European concerns, but also to intervene in the issue with a single voice, the Peace and Security Council of the African Union (AU) in May approved the creation of an observatory on African migration. The Observatory will have the task of collecting and exchanging information in addition to coordinating African countries to understand, anticipate and act on questions relating to migration and to support continental initiatives to stem the flow of illegal migration. The images from a few months ago of migrants being sold as slaves in Libya, or the stories of maltreatment, have awoken people’s consciences. But Europe too should try to change its outlook and see the phenomenon of African migration from a different point of view. Faced with startling demographic trends, African governments are committed to a genuine race against time to provide responses to the growing expectations concerning food, jobs and energy for a population that is growing exponentially. Supporting the countries that are conducting this effort for the development of their own economies and their own societies not only by talking, but also with a more tangible commitment, must represent an indirect but effective response to many of Europe’s anxieties concerning migration.
To subscribe to the magazine please access our subscription page here
A threat for Europe, an opportunity for Africa. Figures and words reveal the divergent perceptions of the immigration phenomenon.
