Population in Africa
Senior 3 · Geography
Population in Africa
Lesson 3 of 4
25 min
Let's begin
The 2022 census counted about 889 thousand recent internal migrants in Rwanda: people living in a different place from where they lived a few years before. About 355 thousand of them were in the City of Kigali, and 306 thousand in the Eastern Province (NISR). The capital draws people with jobs and schools; the Eastern Province, the least densely populated, has more land per person. Every migration has a reason, and every migration changes both the place left behind and the place of arrival.
Definition
Migration: the movement of people from one place to another to live, for a long time or for good. Emigration: leaving one's country to live in another; immigration: arriving in a new country to live. Refugee: a person forced to flee their country by war, persecution or disaster. Internally displaced person (IDP): someone forced from home who stays inside their own country.
Figure 4: recent internal migrants by province of residence (NISR, 2022).
| Type | Meaning | African example |
|---|---|---|
| Rural–urban | From villages to towns | Young people moving to Kigali, Lagos, Nairobi or Kinshasa for work and education |
| Rural–rural | From one farming area to another | Farmers moving to less crowded land in eastern Rwanda; labourers to the cocoa farms of Côte d'Ivoire |
| Urban–rural | From towns back to villages | Retired workers returning home |
| Seasonal | For part of each year | Herders in the Sahel following rain and pasture; harvest workers |
| International labour migration | Across borders for work | Workers from Lesotho, Mozambique and Malawi to South Africa's mines; Africans working in the Gulf states and Europe |
| Forced | Fleeing danger | Refugees and IDPs from conflicts in the DR Congo, South Sudan and Sudan; people escaping drought in the Horn of Africa |
| Push factors (at the source) | Pull factors (at the destination) |
|---|---|
| Shortage of land; small, divided plots | Available land |
| Unemployment and low incomes | Jobs and higher wages |
| Few schools, hospitals and services | Better schools, health care, electricity and water |
| Drought, floods, landslides, soil exhaustion | Reliable rainfall and fertile soils |
| War, insecurity and persecution | Peace and security |
| Family pressure, early marriage | Relatives already there; the attraction of town life |
| On the area they leave | On the area they reach | |
|---|---|---|
| Positive | Less pressure on land and services; money sent home (remittances); returning migrants bring skills and ideas | Labour for industry, farms and services; a bigger market; a mix of cultures and skills |
| Negative | Loss of young, able workers (and of doctors, engineers and teachers abroad, the "brain drain"); farms and families left to the old, women and children | Overcrowding, slums, pressure on water, schools and hospitals; unemployment; crime; tension between newcomers and hosts |
IOM, the United Nations migration agency: African Migration Trends, Myth vs Reality. Watch for where most African migrants actually go, and compare it with the picture often shown in the news.
Definition
Remittances: money that migrants send home to their families. Brain drain: the emigration of highly skilled and educated people, such as doctors and engineers, from a poorer country to a richer one.
Worked example
Worked example 1: reading Figure 4. What percentage of Rwanda's recent internal migrants lived in the City of Kigali in 2022?
Worked example
Worked example 2: classify and explain. A young man leaves a crowded hillside farm in the Western Province for a building job in Kigali and sends money home each month. Name the type of migration and give one push factor, one pull factor and one effect on his home area.
Warning
Do not confuse a refugee with a migrant worker. A refugee is forced to leave by danger and is protected by international law; a labour migrant chooses to move for work. In answers, always say whether a movement is voluntary or forced.
Tip
Four lenses for causes: Economic (jobs, land), Social (schools, family), Political (war, persecution), Environmental (drought, floods). Give a push and a pull for each.
Practice
Sources and credits
This lesson adapts CC BY-SA material and is shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.
