International migration has been the focus of several studies in international macroeconomics in recent decades. Interest in this issue is linked to the significant increase in global migration, which rose by 83% between 1990 and 2020.1 For Africa, international migration has doubled over the same period, with more than 40 million Africans now living outside their country of origin, of whom 52% reside within Africa. These intra- and extra-continental migrations have been the subject of several recent studies in political science and international macroeconomics (Whitaker and Giersch, 2015; Whitaker, 2017; Gnimassoun, 2025).

In the field of political science, research mainly focuses on the factors that shape African migration dynamics (Flahaux and De Haas, 2016; Nshimbi and Moyo, 2017; Ani et al., 2023), as well as on the reception conditions of migrants in destination countries (Harris et al., 2018; Gordon et al., 2020; Mutanda, 2022). Although studies on African migration dynamics provide a comprehensive view of the fundamentals behind intra-African migration, they often lack empirical foundations. On the other hand, studies on migrant reception provide valuable empirical evidence but tend to be country-focused, mainly on South Africa,2 offering a less comprehensive view of the region as a whole.

Report by the African Development Bank