IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/oec/swacaa/17-en.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Identifying the Factors Driving West African Migration

Author

Listed:
  • Matthew Kirwin

    (US Department of State)

  • Jessica Anderson

    (Institute for the Study of International Migration)

Abstract

Since 2014 over 600 000 African migrants have arrived in Italy through the perilous Central Mediterranean route, and nearly 120 000 arrived in 2017. This paper is the first examination of migration motivations at the individual level using nationally representative surveys and focus group data collected in West Africa. Respondents in six West African countries cite economic factors as the reason for migrating and those who wish to stay claim family and love of country as the ties that bind. The study then specifically focuses on Nigeria, the country of origin for a quarter of all Africans traveling through the Central Mediterranean route. Half of the Nigerians were interested in leaving their country of origin if given the opportunity, well above the number in neighbouring countries. Evidence from the six-country survey suggests individuals are migrating for economic reasons but statistical analysis of the Nigeria data reveals a different set of push factors behind the desire to migrate. In fact, economic standing has a limited effect on Nigerians’ desire to leave their home. Instead, individual perceptions of the strength of Nigeria’s democracy are most strongly associated with Nigerians’ desire to migrate abroad, in addition to low levels of trust in local security institutions. Urban and more highly educated Nigerians, especially from Lagos, are also more likely to want to migrate abroad. These findings shed new light on domestic policy steps that could address the grievances and concerns of those who seek to migrate.

Suggested Citation

  • Matthew Kirwin & Jessica Anderson, 2018. "Identifying the Factors Driving West African Migration," West African Papers 17, OECD Publishing.
  • Handle: RePEc:oec:swacaa:17-en
    DOI: 10.1787/eb3b2806-en
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1787/eb3b2806-en
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1787/eb3b2806-en?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Beber, Bernd & Scacco, Alexandra, 2022. "The myth of the misinformed migrant? Survey insights from Nigeria's irregular migration epicenter," Ruhr Economic Papers 957, RWI - Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-University Bochum, TU Dortmund University, University of Duisburg-Essen.
    2. Stöcker, Alexander & Baskaran, Thushyanthan & Hufschmidt, Patrick, 2023. "Political favoritism and internal migration in Benin," Ruhr Economic Papers 1031, RWI - Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-University Bochum, TU Dortmund University, University of Duisburg-Essen.
    3. Bujor Răzvan, 2022. "Migration from the perspective of climate change," Proceedings of the International Conference on Business Excellence, Sciendo, vol. 16(1), pages 556-566, August.
    4. Klöble, Katrin, 2021. "A behavioural perspective on the drivers of migration: Studying economic and social preferences using the Gallup World Poll," IDOS Discussion Papers 4/2021, German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS).
    5. Elijah Yendaw, 2022. "Driving factors and sources of capital for immigrant entrepreneurs in Ghana," Journal of Global Entrepreneurship Research, Springer;UNESCO Chair in Entrepreneurship, vol. 12(1), pages 53-69, December.
    6. Joseph I. Uduji & Elda N. Okolo-Obasi, 2020. "Does corporate social responsibility initiative restrain young people from irregular migration in sub-Saharan Africa? Evidence from Nigeria’s oil producing communities," Research Africa Network Working Papers 20/061, Research Africa Network (RAN).
    7. Joseph I. Uduji & Elda N. Okolo-Obasi, 2020. "Does corporate social responsibility initiative restrain young people from irregular migration in sub-Saharan Africa? Evidence from Nigeria’s oil producing communities," Working Papers of the African Governance and Development Institute. 20/061, African Governance and Development Institute..
    8. Matt Buehler & Kristin E. Fabbe & Eleni Kyrkopoulou, 2023. "Surveying the Landscape of Labor Market Threat Perceptions from Migration: Evidence from Attitudes toward Sub-Saharan African Migrants in Morocco," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 76(4), pages 748-773, August.
    9. Tii N. Nchofoung & Simplice A. Asongu, 2021. "ICT for Sustainable Development: Global Comparative Evidence of Globalisation Thresholds," Working Papers 20/061, European Xtramile Centre of African Studies (EXCAS).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    migrants; migration; Nigeria; smuggling; West Africa;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J11 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Demographic Trends, Macroeconomic Effects, and Forecasts
    • O15 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration
    • O20 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Development Planning and Policy - - - General
    • R23 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Household Analysis - - - Regional Migration; Regional Labor Markets; Population

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:oec:swacaa:17-en. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/oecddfr.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.