Migration from sub-Saharan countries to Europe has exploded over the past decade. Since 2010 a rising tide of Africans, asylum seekers mostly, have made Europe their home.

This population of sub-Saharan migrants has been boosted by the influx of nearly 1 million asylum applicants (970,000) between 2010 and 2017, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of data from Eurostat. Sub-Saharan Africans also moved to EU countries, Norway and Switzerland as resettled refugees, through family reunification and in other ways.

Will the inflow of migrants from sub-Saharan Africa to Europe proceed at the same pace in the near future? It is hard to say. However, the idea of migrating is on the minds of many an African living south of the Sahara. We can safely say that more will be coming, if the opportunity to do so is there.

According to a 2017 Pew Research Center survey in six sub-Saharan countries that have supplied many of the region’s migrants to Europe, many say they would move to another country if the means and opportunity presented themselves. And in Senegal, Ghana and Nigeria, more than a third say they actually plan to migrate in the next five years. Of those who plan to move, more individuals plan to move to the U.S. than to Europe in most countries surveyed.

As for destinations, as of 2017, nearly three-quarters (72%) of Europe’s sub-Saharan immigrant population was concentrated in just four countries: the UK (1.27 million), France (980,000), Italy (370,000) and, surprisingly, Portugal (360,000).

Why this is allowed when these people lower the wages of natives and create cultural and actual conflict within society remains a mystery…

Sufficed to say that migration of these enormous proportions is senseless and damaging to both continents and, as ever, the best way to help people, regardless of geographical location, is to help them where they are.

Localism!