Africa. Migrations Between Perceptions and Data Production in the Long Run

Africa is a vast continent with more than a billion inhabitants in 54 countries and highly variegated political, economic, climatic and social conditions. Human mobility within a continent that has been the cradle of various cultures dates to prehistoric times. By the mid21st century, Africa’s population will reach two billion and account for almost a quarter of the planet’s inhabitants. The continent will also continue to stand out for the low average age of the population (currently 19 years). Urbanization is increasing, with between 40% and 70% of the population living in cities, depending on the context, while the lack of comparable growth in economic and social resources is leading to a worsening of living conditions, with inevitable repercussions on already intense migratory flows. Forced or voluntary migration is, first of all, internal to the continent. But what are the reasons for emigration? Of the legacies that weigh on the history and present of Africa, the slave trade and colonialism are among the heaviest. This paper reviews the literature on the drivers of African migration, focusing particularly on African perceptions of Europe, and discusses the state of the art in the production of data on migration and its usability in the light of current conceptual and methodological issues.