Population growth and migration in northern and western Africa

This paper investigates the effect of population growth on international migration in northern and western Africa over the last 35 years. Population growth is a cause of emigration, with a lag of about twenty years, but its effect may vary according to local environmental conditions. Emigration is, it transpires, only the final response to population pressure, which kicks in when specific environmental constraints are met. With a sufficient increase in, for instance, arable land, land productivity or urbanization, emigration may be kept down, even after periods of rapid demographic increase.