New Migration Partnership Between West African Countries and EU: Preventing the Migration Flows or Improving African Economies

The deaths of thousands of migrants in the last three years arouses concern for African and European authorities. In this context, Europe (EU) felt the need to solve the problem from its source while supporting the authorities of the countries of origin of these migrants. Thus, the EU is putting into place and implementing a new Migration Partnership Framework starting with a number of priority countries of origin and transit which are Mali, Nigeria, Niger, Senegal, and Ethiopia. The aim of this framework is to save lives at sea and in the desert, fight traffickers and smugglers’ networks that benefit from people’s despair and decrease the migration flows which reach 150,000 per year. According to this new partnership, EU will allocate about 2.38 billion euro to the origin and transit countries and in turn, African countries will stop the migration flows to Europe. Is this partnership benefic for these African countries? Is that the solution for migration flows in Europe? The aim of this study is to interpret and answer these questions by using migration reports, figures and graphs. After examining the interpretations, we emphasized that the only solution that will stop the migration flows, is good governance and foreign investments. The study suggest that African leaders have to cultivate good governance in the political management of their countries. Moreover, we suggest that EU invest in the private sector in order to decrease the unemployment in African countries.