Original scientific paper
The Historical-Geographic Dynamics of Migration in the Africa – EU Direction
Janez Pirc
; Institute for Ethnic Studies, Ljubljana, Slovenia
Abstract
The article gives a comprehensive analysis of the most important factors that have contributed through historical development to the interweaving between the African and European migration system and/or the increase in migration flows between those regions. The historical sketch commences from the end of the 19th century, when political and/or colonial relations between the European and African regions intensified. While a gradual increase in the African migration population, travelling almost exclusively to the most influential European colonial centres, was noted in the first half of the 20th century, a major change in the development of migration on that route occurred from the 1960s, with increasingly more African countries gaining their independence. In more recent history, an important turning-point occurred around 1990, when major socio-political changes came about, both on the territory of Europe and of Africa. The causes for that type of migration had always been very complex and had been linked to processes and factors on both sides. Various measures in favour of migration from countries outside the region of the European Economic Community that were introduced from the early 1970s did not produce the desired effects while, to the contrary, some restrictions even stimulated certain types of migration from the African continent. Notwithstanding the fact that, in the quantitative sense, the majority of African migrants and/or foreign citizens continue to be concentrated in the former colonial centres, those centres have not been the sole regions of mass migration from Africa for some time now.
Keywords
migration; Africa; EU; history; geography; migration factors
Hrčak ID:
26289
URI
Publication date:
30.6.2008.
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