Ugochi Daniels
A majority of Africans support the free movement of people across borders, but many are hesitant about immigrants coming into their own countries, according to Afrobarometer’s new 2026 African Insights flagship report.
The report, based on 50,961 face-to-face interviews in 38 countries conducted in 2024/2025, examines how citizens view trade, migration, global power competition, Africa’s voice in the world, and climate change.
The findings reveal a clear contradiction: Africans are open to regional mobility, but cautious about who comes in.
Support for Free Movement, Limits on Entry
About 56% of Africans say people in their region should be able to move freely across international borders. But 40% want governments to limit cross-border movement to protect jobs and opportunities for citizens.
That caution extends to who is allowed in. While 77% of respondents say they would welcome immigrants or foreign workers as neighbors, majorities prefer fewer or no job seekers (64%) and refugees (70%) admitted.
Views on the economic impact are split down the middle: 45% say immigrants are good for the national economy, while 44% say they are bad.
In an unexpected twist, resistance is strongest among those with the most to gain from globalization. Higher education and higher skills are linked to lower support for admitting job seekers in Africa.
“One unexpected finding stands out: In Africa, unlike elsewhere, it is the most educated, the most skilled, and the wealthiest who express the greatest resistance to immigrants,” the report notes
Citizens also say movement is hard in practice. Only 23% describe it as “easy” or “very easy” to cross borders to work or trade, compared to 63% who call it difficult.
Emigration Intentions on the Rise
The desire to leave is growing. Nearly half of Africans, 45%, have considered emigrating, with 25% saying they have thought about it “a lot.”
That’s up 7 percentage points since 2016/2018.The urge to leave is highest among youth aged 18-35, at 32%, and among the most educated, at 31%. West Africans are more than twice as likely as East and North Africans to have given serious thought to emigrating.
Economic Reasons Dominate
Among potential emigrants, 50% say they would leave to look for work and 29% to escape economic hardship.
Europe remains the top destination at 32%, followed closely by North America at 28%. Only 22% would choose to move within their sub-region or elsewhere in Africa — down from 36% in 2016/2018.Other findings in the report also track mobility pressures. In the Middle East, recent hostilities have driven displacement in Lebanon and returns to Syria.
And migration through the Darién Gap has nearly stopped. “Attention tends to settle on a handful of routes,” said IOM Deputy Director General, Ugochi Daniels, in a separate IOM release this week. “But nearly half of the world’s 304 million international migrants live within their own region.”
A Daily Guide Report