The Desire to Immigrate Is Popular for the Young In Africa

The 2022 Africa Youth Survey report by the Ichikowitz Family Foundation (IFF), released recently in celebration of World Refugee Day, found that economic strife, insecurity, corruption, political intolerance, unreliable internet, and poor education systems are behind the desire of many African youth to relocate to Europe or the US. 52% of African youth aged between 18 and 24 (Africa’s average age is 19 years) are likely to consider emigrating in the next 3 years if their governments do nothing to improve the quality of their lives. But in Nigeria and Sudan, 75% and in Angola and Malawi 66% said they wanted to immigrate.

Compared to the 2019 study there is a 22% increase in the number of youths saying they would like to move to another country. What is even more alarming is the fact that half of those who would like to emigrate elsewhere have no plans of returning home. The study is based on research conducted by 300 face-to-face interviews in Angola, Republic of Congo, DRC, Ethiopia, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, SA, Sudan, Uganda, and Zambia. The report calls on African governments to commit budgets towards supporting entrepreneurship, updating education curricula, taming corruption, improving healthcare, increasing internet penetration, and curbing election violence to keep their youth within their continent.