Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country and one of its largest economies, sits at the crossroads of the continent’s migration landscape. As both a regional immigration hub and an origin for significant emigration, the country contends with a wide range of migration issues that have evolved over time. This country profile situates Nigeria's migration trends and policies.
Ethiopia's pioneering new approach to refugees, known as Makatet, focuses on inclusion and self-sufficiency by offering more refugees work permits, business licenses, and national identification cards. The approach could increase individuals' integration and reduce government costs. But questions remain about funding, implementation, and protection gaps for certain populations, as this article details.
The time that immigrants and other diaspora members spend volunteering to support their homeland is rarely considered to be a measurable remittance. That oversight ignores the large value of these contributions, which can come from medical professionals, academics, and many others. This article explores the possibility of assigning a numeric value to these types of investments.
Some countries with large diasporas have sought to maximize incoming remittances and channel them into particular sectors. Diaspora engagement policies are not always successful, but research shows that they are generally accompanied by increased remittance sending. This article explains the connection and explores some of the factors affecting remittance levels.
Approximately 2.5 million sub-Saharan African immigrants lived in the United States in 2024—more than triple the number in 2000—with most coming from Nigeria, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, or South Africa. This article offers a range of information about this diverse group, which has higher educational attainment and English proficiency than the overall immigrant population, and tends to have higher income.
When agricultural communities are displaced by conflict or the impacts of climate change, women often assume new roles as primary providers while men lose their traditional breadwinner status. This shift can create both opportunities and risks. This article details the dynamics, focusing on experiences in Mozambique and Zimbabwe.
Migration governance in Africa's Sahel region has been been pulled in different directions, torn between security-focused border restrictions and economic visions for free movement. New complexity was added after Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger withdrew from the regional ECOWAS bloc. This articles provides insight on the migration and policy trends in a dynamic region.
Sudan’s civil war has created the world's largest and fastest-growing displacement crisis, one that has been largely overshadowed by conflicts and political tensions elsewhere around the globe. As major international donor countries pull back humanitarian aid funding, the crisis is only expected to worsen. This article examines the dramatic scale of displacement and its place in Sudan's history.
Children and youth who are displaced by climate events face unique barriers to accessing and completing school. Children comprise a disproportionately large share of the world’s forcibly displaced people, and even temporary displacement can have permanent ramifications for their education, livelihood prospects, and well-being. This article explores the connections between climate change, mobility, and education.
Eritreans account for a disproportionately large share of the world’s refugees. But fleeing the harshly repressive country is rarely easy. This article provides a primer on the situation in Eritrea and the conditions that refugees and other emigrants have encountered abroad.
Sub-Saharan Africa is predicted to see more climate-related displacement than any other world region. That fate, however, can be mitigated through the use of measures such as early warning systems and adaptation strategies to lessen the impact of droughts, floods, and other hazards. This article provides an overview of existing climate-related displacement in Africa and approaches to limit future internal migration that owes to environmental causes.
East African migrants traveling irregularly can face terrible conditions in transit, including torture and even death. Many may become stranded and need assistance from an international organization or government to return to their country of origin. This article analyzes the results of a major return and reintegration initiative for stranded migrants, finding that certain types of assistance can be quite beneficial.
Kenya's relative peace, stability, and economic growth have made it an attractive destination for economic migrants, tourists, and refugees from troubled neighboring countries. Regional instability and terror attacks have undermined support for humanitarian reception, however, and the government often views refugees as a security liability. This article examines Kenya's past and present immigration and emigration trends.
The international humanitarian protection system built amid the ashes of World War II has come under increasing strain, as record numbers of people flee internationally and travel farther distances. New barriers to protection in destination countries have captured public attention, but governments are also experimenting with ways to offer sanctuary, which could signal a remaking of the global system, as this article explains.
Credit cards, bank accounts, and other financial services are often critical in order to fully participate in the modern world. Yet many refugees and other forced migrants have trouble obtaining these seemingly simple tools, preventing them from full integration. This article outlines humanitarian migrants’ needs for financial services and the barriers that can arise.
Is climate change a major driver of migration and displacement? From where are people leaving, and where are they going? This informative primer, a Climate Migration 101 of sorts, provides answers to basic questions about climate change and migration, starting with how and where climate change triggers human movement.
Despite the widespread impression that people inevitably migrate away from climate-vulnerable areas, many adapt to environmental changes, choose to remain in their homeland, or simply cannot leave, due to a lack of money, connections, legal avenues, or other means to do so. These “trapped populations” may be among the most affected victims of climate change, this article explains.
Tanzania’s previously generous policies towards refugees have been growing more restrictive. Many refugees are confined to camps separated from the rest of the community, and authorities have been accused of pressuring thousands of migrants to return to Burundi and Mozambique. In border communities, however, relations between natives and foreign nationals are much calmer, as this article details.
Researchers often seek to predict how many people will move due to climate change, but beyond the inherent forecasting difficulties, their work is complicated by the fact that terms such as "climate migrant" are nebulous and migration drivers are often multifaceted. Instead, this article explains why analysts might ask how climate change will reshape existing patterns of migration and immobility.
Digital remittances services tend to be cheaper than traditional banks or money transfer operators, and may be more convenient for many users. The COVID-19 pandemic helped speed up the digitization of remittances, but key hurdles remain. This article outlines the promise and challenges of these new platforms.
