The Sub-Saharan migrations in the Maghreb, discussion topic at Casa África

The behaviour of migratory flows from West Africa towards the north has been changing over time: Maghreb countries now not only make up a region of origin and transit, but also as a destination for these migrations. In 2009 it was estimated that between 1 and 2 million immigrants from Sub-Saharan Africa had settled on North African soil. Just in Libya, the country that has taken in the most in the region, it was estimated that before the 2011 conflict it had 1.3 million immigrants that came from the Sub-Saharan area, mainly originating from Niger, Chad, Mali, Nigeria and Ghana. Some of these immigrants remain in the Maghreb as a consequence of the toughening of the European Union's migratory policy; others, because their aim right from the start was to settle in these countries, attracted by their dynamics of growth and social change.

Casa Árabe examines, in collaboration with the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung  Foundation (FES), Casa África and Casa Mediterráneo, the current social and economic reality of Sub-Saharan immigrants, in a series of   conferences organised in order to present the book  The Maghreb and Sub-Saharan migrations: the role of associations and trade unions. The first of these presentations took place at  Casa África yesterday, 24th September, and was attended by Hassen Boubakri, professor of geography at the University of Susa (Tunisia), who specialises in international migrations in the Maghreb and Mediterranean region, and local and regional development.

The Maghreb and Sub-Saharan migrations: the role of associations and trade unions is a publication coordinated by Rafael Bustos, Olivia Orozco and Lothar Witte, and was edited in Spanish by Casa Árabe and in French by the FES Foundation in Tunisia. It is also the result of a seminar with the same name organised by both institutions and the Alternativas Foundation.

The presentation of this book and the conference will be held today, 25th September at Casa Árabe's headquarters in  Madrid and tomorrow, 26th September at the University of Alicante with Casa Mediterráneo, always accompanied with a conference by Hassen Boubakri.