Search

The history of the intercontinental migration between Europe and its Afro-Asian neighbourhood dates back to the Palaeolithic. Although the paper outlines the history of international migrations affecting Europe (immigration, emigration, migration within Europe and between countries) and the demographic effects of such migration on the present European population, it try to analyse the global and regional causes of the recent European migration crisis (2015-2016), the countries of origin of the migrants, the main routes of migration, and the destination areas in Europe. From among the various and multidisciplinary research possibilities, the study focuses on a geographical analysis. As far as intercontinental migration is concerned, Europe was characterised by emigration between the 16th and mid-20th centuries and mainly by immigration thereafter. Immigration has principally affected Western Europe, the more developed part of the continent. In consequence of post-WWII reconstruction, dynamic economic development, local labour shortages, and the decolonisation process, Western Europe received many migrants, initially from the Mediterranean region and subsequently from the post-communist European countries. Meanwhile, the core areas of the European Economic Area (EEA) became the main destination for migrants coming from predominantly Muslim regions in Asia and Africa. This decades-old process suddenly accelerated in the year 2015 and constituted mass migration. The global and regional causes of such intercontinental migration in the sending areas are as follows: the population boom, economic backwardness, unemployment, growing poverty, climate change, desertification, negative ecological changes, global political rivalries and local power changes (e.g. the Arab Spring, 2011), growing political instability, wartime destruction, multiple and cumulative crises, general hopelessness and despair. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the flows of physicians and nurses from African countries to Europe and North America using available data sets. It offers a geographic perspective of the magnitude and flow of these skilled health care professionals and highlights positive and negative impacts of the flows on Africa’s development. The article further discusses the coercive and ‘carrot and stick’ strategies that African governments have employed during the past two decades in attempts to stem the tide of the flows of its health care professionals. It concludes by noting that while Africa can do nothing about the pull factors, it can mitigate the push factors by creating conducive working environments to help retain its health care professionals. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]