Addis Ababa — With the current polemical debate and concerns around migration policies globally, when do the migrants become valuable assets? This was the question at the heart of the experts' discussion in the ongoing African Development Week in Addis Ababa.
In a presentation on addressing the challenge of international migration in Africa, Takyiwaa Manuk, Director of the ECA Social Development Policy Division evoked the dominant image of European countries being flooded by migrants from Africa, doesn't say it all.
Manuk said that recent media coverage and research on irregular migration as well as the high death toll amongst those crossing the Mediterranean have falsely reinforced the belief that African migration is essentially directed towards Europe.
"Migration streams within Africa are much larger than those out of Africa", she affirmed.
"About 31 million of the continent's population has migrated internationally. This is little more than 3 percent the continent's population. More than half of those migrating internationally do so within Africa, with only about 28 percent of migrants from Africa going to Europe. Of total migrant stock in Europe, less than 12 percent are from Africa," explained Manuk.
The discussions at the meeting evolved around the upshot of migration.
ECA research shows that remittances inflows to Africa quadrupled between 1990 and 2010, reaching nearly USD49 billion in 2010, equivalent to, on average, 2.6 percent of Africa's GDP.
The proportion of remittances invested in food, health and education ranged from 30 percent in Kenya and 37 percent in Nigeria to 47 percent in Burkina Faso and 67 percent in Senegal.
Thus international migration has tremendous potential to improve development and welfare in origin countries.
Manuk urged countries to embrace regional integration and border management to facilitate migration and visa-free travel for Africans in Africa. She further appealed for consultative processes in the designing policies that secure the benefits of migration at global and regional levels, with involvement of countries of destination and of origin.
For more information about the African Development Week and to access its publications, please visit www.uneca.org.
