Why Africans Are Migrating Abroad

Embarking on a journey towards international migration has been quite a quotidian for Africans. In fact, African migrants comprise a substantial number in many parts of the world according to the United Nations, and it has been reported that this trend is aiming a steady climb for the years to come.Multitudinous factors drive the African race to nearly touch all corners of the globe. Some of the highlights include seeking job opportunities or fleeing from conflict, poverty, and violence. In this article, we will discuss the reasons that compel the Africans to move to other continents.A Thrive for Development and Better Urban Living Among the seven continents of the world, Africa is the second largest next to Asia, with over one billion population at present. In spite of this pressing fact, the hot deserts of Africa remained subordinate to Western countries in terms of economic growth, infrastructure development, and modernization.For this reason, a staggering number of the locales have left their country of origin in order to venture on new horizons of advancement offered abroad. According to the United States Census, 881,300 African migrants have fled to America since the year 2000, and the count has been considerably increasing until the recent years. Similarly, this rising trend is also noted by Eurostat from the 989,600 Sub-Saharan African diasporas who have dispersed in Europe of the same year, mostly consisting of professionals and refugees. These immigrants risk labor in various fields of career such as engineering, agriculture, and healthcare, which in turn reward them with a progressive financial stability to afford daily necessities and the security of a new home.To Ascend From PovertyPoverty is the principal culprit of hunger and the main reason why Africans leave their country. The people of Africa especially in the east, in Ethiopia, Somalia, and Kenya, have faced intense pressures from poverty for more than decades now – a struggle that they continue to battle.Documented reports by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization estimate that 233 million populace of Sub-Saharan Africa was hungry in 2014–2016. This can be accounted from the point that these people do not have sufficient income to provide themselves even with the basic survival needs of food. That said, they take the risk of traveling and even drowning to death in their quest to reach the walls of richer nations for the sole purpose of fleeing poverty in their very homeland.The Ravaging Wage of Wars and Conflict Engenders FearHundreds and thousands of helpless Africans have been victims of violence and the emerging conflicts in political regimes. A storm of rising anger has exploded across the nation with the disparities in political views of the authoritarian leaders, the democrats, and a plethora of their respective supporters. With the crisis in Libya, many citizens were handicapped of their freedom and received oppressive treatments from the government once they voice their outcry of opposition.But there are rebels – including the teenagers – who were unstoppable and wanted to put justice into their hands with the aid of guns and bombs. Hence, countless people have been slaughtered in this era of civil war in their continent. This terrifying disaster fueled the fear of survival for most Africans. Thus, a tidal wave of Middle Eastern migrants began to crest in the coast of Europe and other nearby countries.Contemplating on the Other External FactorsAside from the concepts of unemployment, poverty, and conflict that drive the African settlement on a foreign land, it is also imperative to see the context of other external contributory factors.Environment, for one, is a serious challenge for most Africans; soil erosion, desertification, deforestation, and most importantly drought and water shortages are issues that influenced the Africans to opt the road of migration to seek a better land. In line with this, the rate of population growth resulting in poverty has been increasing rapidly in this part of the world where the 221 million in 1950 has become billions in the current year. All these circumstances along with the negative factors stated above are strong reasons why Africans migrate.NOTE: Get a Copy of the African Warrior Magazine June-August Issue HEREThe migrant movement of Africans worldwide rooted from multifarious factors that have endangered their safety and status of survival. The plight of people to fight poverty, political atrocities, conflicts, and other drawbacks pushes them to seek for peace and personal development in other international countries.At the end of the day, what is essential despite all these reasons why they migrate is the wider perspective of racial acceptance and cultural understanding from the people in various nations.