Out of Africa: What Drives the Pressure to Emigrate?

Abstract

Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. Abstract. Terms of use: Documents inWho intends to leave Africa and what drives the pressure to emigrate? For four African countries (Ghana, Senegal, Morocco and Egypt) we evaluate the strength of push and pull factors in stating emigration intentions 'out of Africa'. In general, one can say that the typical potential migrant is young, male, optimistic about attaining a higher living standard and finding a job and having relatively modern values compared to those who intend to stay. Classical push factors like unemployment and poverty are present in most countries. The most notable finding is extent with which the optimism surrounding the net benefits of migration drives emigration intentions out of Africa, especially in Ghana and Senegal. Besides this general observation, each and every country tells a different story. Signs of positive self-selection with respect to the level of education of potential migrants are clearly present in Ghana and Egypt, especially among women. However, negative self-selection applies to the case of Moroccan men. The network effects of potential migrants turn out to be of some importance in Ghana and Egypt. However, in Senegal and Morocco such ties are apparently not as important as one might expect from studies of actual migration behaviour. In Morocco the prevailing migration culture offers a plausible explanation and in Senegal the high frequency of migration in regions with an established migration history offers some of the services that network ties might offer.JEL classification: F22, O52, P2

Remittances and their Effect on Emigration Intentions in Egypt, Morocco and Turkey

“…In Egypt, such a person is typically a man with a relatively high level of education with a paid job, a profile that fits well with that of the high-skilled Egyptian 9 A number of studies report that emigration is not considered an option by the poorest households (Taylor, 1999;Bilsborrow et al, 1997) emigrants in the oil-producing nations of the Middle East, the main destination area of Egyptian emigrants. The dominant role played by men in migration also fits in well with the social norms about migration that persist in Egypt (Van Dalen et al 2005). In…”

“…De Jong, 1994;Puri and Ritzema, 2000;Taylor, 1999;Van Dalen et al 2005). Regarding the household characteristics, these studies also show that emigration intentions of non-migrants are highest in households with high financial dependency on emigrated members, with a low to moderate level of economic welfare 9 , and with a relatively high number of household members living abroad.…”

Introduction: The Young People and Agriculture ‘Problem’ in Africa

“…For example, there are growing literatures on the role of agrarian issues in motivating and sustaining young people's participation in the Sierra Leone conflict (Peters and Richards 2011;Richards 2005Richards , 2011Fanthorpe and Maconachie 2010) and the impacts of transportation on livelihood decisions of rural young people (Porter 2010;Porter et al 2011;Porter et al 2010). There is also a literature on migration behaviour of rural young people that is highly relevant (Barratt et al 2012;van Dalen et al 2005;Tacoli and Mabala 2010). Nevertheless, examples such as these are too few and far between to provide a broad or coherent evidence base for policymaking.…”

Seasonal Migration and Networks—Evidence on Moldova’s Labour Exodus

“…10 Concretely, we capture poverty by including an indicator which is not based on money values. Instead we measure poverty according to the subjective views of households, which is done similarly by, amongst others, Van Dalen et al (2005).…”