Migration between Africa and Europe: Assessing the role of resources, family and networks
Résumé
This chapter analyses the main determinants of migration from our three Sub-Saharan countries to Europe, and the main determinants of return. We focus on the roles played by education, economic resources and networks for both decisions. In the case of return, we also pay also attention to the roles of visits, remittances and reasons for initial migration. The results suggest a clear positive selection in socioeconomic terms both in migration to Europe and return to origin, which partly answers the widespread concern about a potential brain drain. In addition, our findings confirm the crucial role of networks in facilitating migration to Europe and, in particular, the importance of couple reunification. However, the results for return show that bringing the partner or oen or more children to Europe does not automatically exclude a subsequent return to the country of origin, as is commonly assumed. This finding can probably be explained by transnational family arrangements or the duration of separation following the initial migration to Europe, which tends to be lengthier than expected for economic migrants. Finally, our results also highlight the internal diversity within the populations of Sub-Saharan migrants to Europe, which adds to the difficulty of designing policies to manage migration in a way that maximises the benefit to all parties involved.