XXVII IUSSP International Population Conference, August 2013
Language specific mobility difference in Sub-Saharan Africa
Reiko Hayashi
National Institute of Population and Social Security Research, Japan
Abstract
International migration from Sub-Saharan Africas (SSA) is increasing in number and stable at around 10% of the
total global international migrants during the period from 1990 to 2010. When differentiated by language group, it
is revealed that English-speaking SSA migrants are more prone to go outside of SSA and to Anglophone countries
such as USA or UK, whereas French-speaking SSA migrants move mostly within SSA and those who go beyond
the continent move basically to Francophone countries such as France. The domestic (internal) mobility in SSA
does not show language-specific difference on the country level, but the provincial level analysis reveals that
English-speaking urban capital areas are more mobile than French-speaking capital areas. There is indeed a
cultural, linguistic push and pull relationship in terms of international migration and also one can assume that the
strong pull from Anglophone developed countries had caused the high mobility in the English-speaking capital
areas of SSA. This hypothesis suggests that the international migration is induced not only by economic pull but
also on cultural bonds, and the global movement interacts with domestic mobility.
Keywords : language group, mobility, migration, Sub-Saharan Africa
1.
Introduction
According to the international migration data by country of origin and destination (UN 2012), in 2010
there are in total 214 million migrants in the world, of which 8% are in Sub-Saharan Africa (herein after referred
to as “SSA”) and 10% are from SSA. This latter rate, i.e. the proportion of the number of international migrants
from SSA countries against the total international migrants in the world is stable at around 10% on the year of
1990, 2000 and 2010, but the number is steadily increasing from 16 million in 1990, 18 million in 2000 and 21
million in 2010 due to the population increase of the SSA.
This increase of the number of international migrants of SSA can be explained by the increasing
absolute number of population and the reducing cost of international migration. Concerning the cost, the reducing
price of flight ticket or better transportation services in general, better communication between host and home
country due to mobile telephone and internet development can have played the role. But even if the increasing
numbers of people move across the country border, it is not that anybody moves anywhere. There is a certain flow
of people according to the situation of each sending and receiving country.
This specific flow can be determined by several factors such as historical ties, migration control settings,
or language. The language is an important component, as most of the African countries adopt English, French,
Portuguese or Spanish as (one of the) official language(s) due to the colonial rule and need to unify peoples with
different local languages, which would facilitates the emigration to the corresponding language spoken developed
countries.
XXVII IUSSP International Population Conference, August 2013
The above mentioned data on international migration (UN 2012) enables an analysis of the international
migration flow by each language group. In this article, this language specific international migration flow is
analyzed and compared with internal migration.
2.
International migration from and within Sub-Saharan Africa
Language labeling of countries
Although there are thousands of languages spoken in SSA, the historical setting and a need to adopt a
common language in a country, often, European origin language, such as English, French or Portuguese is used as
an official language. There are notable exceptions. For example, Amharic is the only official language of Ethiopia,
Cameroon has both English speaking and French speaking regions, or the first official language of Equatorial
Guinea is Spanish. However, to make calculation as simple as possible and as the international migration data is
available on the country scale, we attribute here either English, French or Portuguese to one country. Outside of
SSA, countries which do not adopt either of these 3 languages are labeled as “other”. If there are countries which
use multiple languages among these 3 languages, either English, French or Portuguese are chosen. For example, in
the case of Switzerland, where official languages are German, French, Italian and Romansh, the labeled language
in this study is French. Canada adopts English and French as official languages but due to the fact that the English
speaking population is larger than French speaking, and the author does not possess the provincial data on
immigrants at present, English is labeled.
The number of international migrants within and from Sub-Saharan Africa
The number of international migrants from SSA is sorted out by 3 language groups, to other countries
within SSA and to countries outside of SSA. The results are shown in Table 1 together with corresponding total
population of each group of countries.
Table 1 International migration from Sub-Saharan Africa according to language group (2010)
To SSA countries (person)
From
English
speaking
French
speaking
Portuguese
speaking
To non SSA countries (person)
Total
English
speaking
French
speaking
Portuguese
speaking
Total
Other
Total
English SSA
4,011,004
1,429,285
280,959
5,721,248
2,506,724
165,661
74,446
1,982,288
4,729,119
10,450,367
French SSA
3,096,941
4,906,195
50,595
8,053,731
139,045
535,504
24,544
492,668
1,191,761
9,245,492
Portuguese SSA
1,083,450
190,840
34,583
1,308,873
55,255
56,548
352,108
50,927
514,838
1,823,711
Total
8,191,395
6,526,320
366,137
15,083,852
2,701,024
757,713
451,098
2,525,883
6,435,718
21,519,570
45,768,842 867,115,691
2,107,970,625
Total Population
564,733,065 256,613,784
94,068,423 206,879,396 3,640,149,347
6,049,067,791 6,916,183,482
Source : International migration by United Nations (2012), Total population by United Nations (2013), compiled by author. The countries list of each
language category is listed in Annex 1.
XXVII IUSSP International Population Conference, August 2013
352,108
Figure 1 Flow of international migrants by language group
note : The numbers shown in the arrows are international migrants more than 300,000 from Sub-Saharan Africa to non Sub-Saharan
African countries. The color corresponds to the language shown in the legend. The direction of arrows does not correspond to the
actual location of destination.
Although the total population of English-speaking SSA countries is 565 million, more than double the
size of French-speaking SSA countries (257 million), the number of international migrants is not so different
between these 2 language groups, 10 million and 9 million respectively. However, the numerous Francophone
migrants are moving within the SSA countries and Anglophone migrants are more prone to go outside the
continent. There are 4.7 million English speaking SSA migrants compared with 1.2 million French speaking SSA
migrants across the continents. Among the migrants who moved across the continents, around the half move to the
same language destination which proves the strong ties of migration network based on common language.
Table 2 Top 10 destination countries from Sub-Saharan Africa according to language group (2010)
rank
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
from Anglophone SSA
1,007,527
UK
882,208
USA
Kenya
755,631
South Africa
726,817
Sudan
633,824
Ethiopia
489,607
Uganda
401,950
Guinea
361,454
Ghana
351,365
299,840
Saudi Arabia
from Francophone SSA
Côte d'Ivoire
2,131,341
Ghana
1,180,247
Burkina Faso
956,872
Nigeria
650,852
472,346
France
Tanzania
446,415
Gambia
259,449
Rwanda
246,869
Gabon
235,732
Uganda
216,854
from Lusophone SSA
South Africa
478,979
345,273
Portugal
Malawi
172,394
Zimbabwe
159,030
D.R.Congo
144,827
Zambia
105,326
Tanzania
73,198
Namibia
43,650
42,045
France
37,842
USA
XXVII IUSSP International Population Conference, August 2013
Concerning the destination countries from each language group of SSA, as shown in Table 2, UK and
USA is the major destination for the Anglophone SSA countries, whereas the position of France for the
Francophone SSA countries is much weaker. Portugal remains to be the second largest destination for Lusophone
SSA countries, followed by South Africa. The immigrants-friendly United Kingdom or United States of America
are only so for those who speak English. Other immigrants based countries such as Canada, Australia or New
Zealand, the immigrants from SSA is not as numerous as UK or USA (Table 3). There is substantially large
number of emigrants from Francophone SSA countries to Canada (51,871 emigrants), assumingly due to the
existence of Francophone provinces in Canada.
Table 3 Number of immigrants from Sub-Saharan Africa according to language group
(Australia, Canada and New Zealand, 2010)
from
Total
immigrants Anglophone Francophone
SSA
SSA
Australia
Canada
New Zealand
3.
4,711,490
7,202,340
962,072
217,709
247,954
89,273
Lusophone
SSA
3,896
51,871
822
1,138
5,245
160
Internal migration of Sub-Saharan Africans according to the language-group
Due to the difficulties in obtaining comparable internal mobility data, the international comparison of
internal mobility had been limited especially in SSA. However, recent increase of data especially accumulation of
survey data such as Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS), which ask questions regarding internal migration in
similar manner across different SSA countries, enables the comparative analysis. Here, using the question of DHS
on the “years lived in the present place”, internal mobility is compared. If the person answers “always” to that
question, then this person can be considered never moved to any other place and to be immobile or a “stayer”. We
define here “immobility rate” as the number of stayers divided by the total population.
In Figure 2, the male and female immobility rates of countries are shown. The immobility rate varies
largely across the countries. The highly immobile countries are Ethiopia, Niger and Madagascar and mobile
countries are Gabon, Tanzania or Togo. These countries are both English-speaking and French-speaking and it
seems that the language used in each country does not affect the mobility.
XXVII IUSSP International Population Conference, August 2013
Figure 2 Male and female immobility rate of countries in Sub-Saharan Africa (2000-2008)
Sources : Demographic and Health Surveys, compiled by author
However, if we observe the same immobility rates of available urban administrative divisions, notably
capitals of countries, there is a certain difference between the language groups (Figure 3). One can easily notice
that the English speaking urban areas such as Kampala, Nairobi or Lagos show lower immobility rate than French
speaking urban areas such as Kinshasa, Bamako, Niamey or Dakar.
XXVII IUSSP International Population Conference, August 2013
Figure 3 Male and female immobility rate in the capitals of Sub-Saharan Africa (2000-2008)
Sources : Demographic and Health Surveys compiled by author
The difference of immobility rate between English and French-speaking capital areas is only statistically
significant for female rate (p<0.01), and there are notable exceptions such as Kigali (French-speaking but very
low immobility rate) or Harare (English-speaking and high immobility rate), though there seems to be language
specific difference, the English speaking highly mobile capital areas and relatively immobile French-speaking
capital area.
4. Conclusion
Empirically it is strongly felt that the international migration from SSA occurs according to the language
group, and with the statistics, it is confirmed that there is such language specific flow indeed. The internal
mobility in the capitals of English speaking SSA countries are much more than French speaking capitals of SSA
countries, although the country-level internal mobility do not differentiate by language used. From these facts, one
can assume that the strong pull from English speaking countries outside SSA resulted in higher emigration from
English speaking SSA countries and also the higher internal mobility of capitals of English speaking SSA
countries.
XXVII IUSSP International Population Conference, August 2013
Annex 1 List of countries
English
SubSaharan
Africa
French
Portuguese
English
French
Non
SubSaharan
Africa
Portuguese
Other
Botswana, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gambia, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Malawi, Mauritius, Namibia, Nigeria,
Saint Helena, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, Sudan, Swaziland, Uganda, United Republic of
Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe
Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Congo, Côte d'Ivoire,
Democratic Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Guinea, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritania,
Mayotte, Niger, Réunion, Rwanda, Senegal, Togo
Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, Sao Tome and Principe
American Samoa, Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Australia, Bahamas, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belize, Bermuda,
British Virgin Islands, Canada, Cayman Islands, Channel Islands, Cook Islands, Dominica, Falkland Islands, Fiji,
Gibraltar, Grenada, Guam, Guyana, India, Ireland, Isle of Man, Jamaica, Kiribati, Malta, Marshall Islands,
Micronesia , Montserrat, Nauru, New Zealand, Niue, Northern Mariana Islands, Pakistan, Palau, Papua New
Guinea, Philippines, Pitcairn, Puerto Rico, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines,
Samoa, Singapore, Solomon Islands, Sri Lanka, Tokelau, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Turks and Caicos Islands,
Tuvalu, United Kingdom, United States of America, United States Virgin Islands, Vanuatu
Belgium, France, French Guiana, French Polynesia, Guadeloupe, Haiti, Luxembourg, Martinique, Monaco,
Morocco, New Caledonia, Saint Pierre and Miquelon, Switzerland, Tunisia, Wallis and Futuna Islands
Brazil, Portugal, Timor-Leste
Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, Andorra, Argentina, Armenia, Aruba, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Belarus,
Bhutan, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brunei Darussalam, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Chile, China, Colombia,
Costa Rica, Croatia, Cuba, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Denmark,
Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Estonia, Faeroe Islands, Finland, Georgia, Germany, Greece,
Greenland, Guatemala, Holy See, Honduras, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of China, Hungary,
Iceland, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Lao People's
Democratic Republic, Latvia, Lebanon, Libya, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Macao Special Administrative Region
of China, Malaysia, Maldives, Mexico, Mongolia, Montenegro, Myanmar, Nepal, Netherlands, Netherlands
Antilles, Nicaragua, Norway, Occupied Palestinian Territory, Oman, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Poland, Qatar,
Republic of Korea, Republic of Moldova, Romania, Russian Federation, San Marino, Saudi Arabia, Serbia,
Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Suriname, Sweden, Syrian Arab Republic, Tajikistan, Thailand, The former Yugoslav
Republic of Macedonia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Venezuela,
Viet Nam, Western Sahara, Yemen
Bibliography
- United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs (2012) “Trends in International Migrant Stock:
Migrants by Destination and Origin”, United Nations database, POP/DB/MIG/Stock/Rev.2012
- United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division (2013) “World Population
Prospects: The 2012 Revision”, CD-ROM Edition