Emigration Dynamics in Developing Countries, Vol.I: 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: South Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, 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 strongly emphasized the complexity of emigration dynamics. Diverse stages of development, colonial heritage, ethnic base, rapid population growth, ecological deterioration and war, 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 critical threshold. The research concluded that a Global African Migration System was needed for the region.