Africa: Africans Migrate for Jobs Mostly Within the Continent - Why Regional Skills Partnerships Are Needed

What the report says

The Conversation Africa, published via AllAfrica, argues that African migration for work is already driven largely by movement within the continent and that skills policy should reflect that reality. The article says that in 2024, 25.1 million Africans were living in other African countries, with migration concentrated in sectors such as agriculture and manufacturing and many workers holding medium-skilled jobs.

The piece, written by Amanda Bisong and published on 12 August 2026, says current “global skills partnership” models often focus on bilateral links between an African country and a high-income destination, usually in Europe. In the author’s view, those arrangements do not adequately address the scale of intra-African mobility, which the article describes as accounting for most African migration. It also notes that informal routes can leave workers exposed to weak protections and fragmented qualifications.

To respond, the analysis proposes a three-track approach: domestic training for local labour markets, international pathways to high-income destinations, and a regional track for structured mobility within Africa. The article says such a regional pathway could help formalise existing migration corridors, improve worker protections, and better match labour shortages in areas such as healthcare, construction and technical trades.

As background, the article points to African Union and regional integration frameworks, including the Free Movement Protocol, the African Continental Free Trade Area, and regional blocs such as ECOWAS and the East African Community, as possible foundations for wider labour mobility.