Where Africans Go
Top & emerging destinations
Hover over a highlighted country for its complete category list.
North Africa refers to Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Sudan, Tunisia, and Western Sahara. West Africa refers to Benin, Burkina Faso, Cabo Verde, Côte d'Ivoire, the Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and Togo. East Africa refers to Burundi, Comoros, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Rwanda, Seychelles, Somalia, South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
Established diaspora communities
Emigration from North Africa
Morocco has one of Africa's largest and longest-established diasporas, having reached an estimated 3.6 million people abroad by 2024. Top destinations are France, Spain, Italy, and Belgium — the highest per-capita concentration of any European destination — and the Netherlands, a pattern rooted in 1920s–1960s labor recruitment that has since shifted toward higher-skilled, more permanent settlement. Algeria's diaspora is estimated at 1.8 million and mainly concentrated in France, where Algerians are the largest foreign-national group.
Tunisian expats can mostly be found in France, but there are also smaller, but growing, communities in Italy, Germany, and the Gulf countries. The Egyptian diaspora is mostly found in Saudi Arabia and the UAE, followed by Kuwait and Qatar. Expats from Mauritania tend to relocate within the continent of Africa with top destinations being Senegal and Mali, followed by smaller communities in France, and Spain.
Protocols on the Free Movement of Persons
The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) — the world's largest free trade area by member count, covering 54 of the African Union's 55 countries and roughly 1.4 billion people — began preferential trade in goods in January 2021. Its Protocol on Trade in Services includes provisions for the temporary movement of business people and service providers built around short-term, engagement-based access, not long-term residency.
The Protocol on Free Movement of Persons, Right of Residence, and Right of Establishment, adopted in 2018 by the African Union, but not yet in effect, would grant citizens of any AU country the right to enter, reside, and establish economic activity in any of the AU's 55 member states. As of 2026, 32 countries have signed, but only four — Mali, Niger, Rwanda, and São Tomé and Príncipe — have ratified the protocol, well short of the 15 needed for it to enter into force. Sovereignty concerns over labor-market protection and border security are often cited as reasons for the delay.
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Protocol on Free Movement of Persons, in force since 1979, grants citizens of member countries residency rights and up to 90 days of visa-free entry. The East African Community's Common Market Protocol offers a lighter version of this: Kenyan, Ugandan, Tanzanian, Rwandan, and Burundian citizens can travel on just their national ID card, but work permits remain nationally issued rather than harmonized, so it functions more as freedom of movement than a residency mechanism.
The Southern African Development Community's (SADC) Protocol on the Facilitation of Movement of Persons, adopted in 2005, has not yet taken effect as only 7 of 16 member countries have ratified it versus the 11 required. Separately, Rwanda grants visa-free entry to all African passport holders, Kenya replaced its visa requirement with an Electronic Travel Authorization for all nationalities in January 2024, and Seychelles and Mauritius are visa-free to all African nationals.
Sub-Saharan skilled emigration
The "brain drain" from East & West Africa
Anglophone Sub-Saharan Africa's outbound story is dominated by skilled professionals — particularly healthcare workers — leaving for the UK, North America, and Gulf countries, often faster than domestic training programs can replace them. The WHO projects Sub-Saharan Africa will face a shortfall of 5.3 million health workers by 2030 as the international migration of doctors, nurses, and engineers continues alongside limited domestic retention incentives — the region carries over 25% of the world's disease burden, but under 3% of its global health workforce and under 1% of global health expenditure. Nigeria has responded with a 160% increase in medical school admissions between 2023 and 2025.
Nigeria's "japa" wave — Yoruba for "to flee/escape," now shorthand for the country's mass professional exodus — has accelerated sharply: as of 2026, only around 55,000 doctors remain in active practice for a population exceeding 220 million, which is roughly one doctor per 3,600–9,000 people, far below the WHO-recommended ratio. The U.S. and the UK host the largest Nigerian communities abroad, with Niger, Cameroon, and Ghana also a top destination for Nigerians and other west Africans. Nigerian professionals in technology, engineering, and finance are increasingly choosing Canada and Ireland alongside the traditional U.S./UK routes, drawn by more accessible skilled-worker immigration pathways.
While Ghana's nurses in the UK now outnumber Ghanaian nurses in Ghana, the U.S. is the leading destination for Ghanaian expats followed by Nigeria and the UK. Expats from Senegal and Cameroon, both Francophone countries, emigrate primarily to France. Other leading destinations for Senegalese expats include Italy and Spain with Cameroonians often choosing other central African countries such as Gabon, Chad, and Nigeria.
Kenyan and Ethiopian international relocation centers on skilled migration to the West and contract labor in the Gulf countries. Kenya's diaspora leans toward the U.S. and the UK, with its diaspora sending an estimated $3 to 4 billion back to Kenya annually, overwhelmingly the country's largest single source of foreign currency. Ethiopian expats are mainly concentrated in the U.S. and Saudi Arabia, with domestic-work and contract labor being the primary industry for the latter, followed by South Africa. Since 2011, Ethiopia has used diaspora bonds to help finance major infrastructure projects, including the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, one of the more established formal diaspora-investment programs on the continent.
The regional hub
Relocation to & from South Africa
South Africa is the continent's primary regional hub, hosting around 2.4 to 3 million immigrants from elsewhere in Africa as of 2022, making it simultaneously the continent's largest destination for other Africans and an increasingly large sender of its own citizens abroad. South Africa is also the continent’s largest sender of intra-African remittances: as an example, the 690,000 Zimbabwean migrants living in South Africa as of 2021 alone generate roughly 37% of Zimbabwe's total remittance inflows. The UK, Australia, the U.S., and New Zealand are the leading destinations for South Africans abroad. In 2023-2024, 90% of South African university students indicated they wanted to work abroad, though two-thirds expressed intent to eventually return.
Before you relocate
Planning in advance
Relocating abroad brings practical questions well beyond the move itself — from remittances and banking access, to healthcare coverage and pension portability. The information below reflects publicly available data as of mid-2026 and is subject to change; always verify specifics directly with the relevant authorities before making any related decisions.
- Remittance costs into and within Africa remain among the highest in the world, well above the UN's 3%-of-transfer Sustainable Development Goal target — often running 8–10% or more on intra-African corridors specifically, among the most expensive in the world by region. About 20% of the remittances Africa received in 2023 (~$20B) originated from within Africa itself.
- Digital and fintech remittance platforms — such as Mukuru in South Africa, or M-Pesa-linked international transfer services for East Africa — are an increasingly important part of financial planning for those relocating internationally, typically undercutting traditional bank transfer fees substantially.
- Building credit history abroad from scratch is a common early hurdle; credit profiles generally do not transfer internationally, so a secured card and consistent bill payments are typically the standard starting point in a new country.
- Nigeria's Bank Verification Number (BVN) and similar national ID-linked banking systems do not transfer to foreign banking systems, so Nigerian expats typically need to re-establish identity verification from scratch with destination-country banks regardless of their home banking history.
- Several governments, including Nigeria and Ghana, have discussed diaspora tax incentives to encourage formal-channel remittances and investment; rules change frequently and should be confirmed with a local tax advisor before relocating or repatriating funds.
- South Africa taxes on a residence basis with a foreign employment income exemption capped at R1.25 million per year for South African tax residents working abroad who meet a 183-day presence test. Income above that threshold is taxed in South Africa even while working overseas.
- Skilled healthcare workers emigrating from Africa, particularly nurses and doctors moving to the UK, U.S., Canada, and Gulf countries, typically gain access to host-country employer or national healthcare systems, but should confirm credential-recognition timelines, since licensing delays can leave a coverage gap during transition.
- Private international health insurance is strongly advisable for anyone relocating outside formal employment-sponsored coverage, particularly to destinations without reciprocal healthcare arrangements with their home country, which is usually the case when relocating internationally outside the continent of Africa.
- Those working in contract labor roles in Gulf countries, particularly domestic workers from Ethiopia and Kenya, should be aware that healthcare coverage is often tied directly to employer sponsorship, so losing employer sponsorship can mean losing healthcare access simultaneously with losing legal residency status.