Africa-to-Europe value chains in manufacturing and agri-food production can mitigate factors driving current migration patterns by employing Africans in local value-added production and boosting African GDP growth, reorienting Africa-Europe relations towards mutual economic benefit and dignity.
As global supply chains continue to unwind, Europe will become more economically bound with North Africa and adjacent regions in Sub-Saharan Africa. How this economic relationship is managed will significantly impact the scale and manner of African migration to Europe. By 2030, 42% of the world’s young people will live in Africa, making the continent home to the largest supply of available labour globally. This resource, as well as inexpensive land and energy, is spurring the relocation of manufacturing and agri-food production to Africa to service European end-markets. Buoyed by conducive business conditions, the shift has occurred especially in North Africa (primarily Morocco), as well as a handful of countries across sub-Saharan Africa. This ‘nearshoring’ also holds the potential to markedly reduce African migration to Europe.
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