Uganda emerges among top African destinations for immigrants - UN Report

By Brian Kimani, KAMPALA Uganda

Uganda has been ranked among the top three African destinations for immigrants in the Continent, edging out Kenya.

This is according to the World Migration Report 2024 published by the United Nations. The study tracked migration trends that occurred globally in the past year.

UN's report ranked Uganda third, while Kenya featured in seventh position.

South Africa, where the share of male immigrants is slightly higher than that of females, was ranked first.

 Cote d'Ivoire, Sudan, Nigeria and Ethiopia were also identified as favourite destinations by immigrants.

"In Africa, the proportion of female and male migrants in the top destination countries is similar, with only slight differences between countries," the report read in part.

"The most visible exception is Libya, where the share of male immigrants is significantly higher than that of female immigrants."

The report however, yielded very different inferences for emigrants as Egypt ranked at the top of the list.

An emigrant is a person who permanently leaves their country of origin to settle in another.

"This dynamic is broadly similar in the top 10 origin countries in Africa, apart from Egypt – the top country of origin in the region – which has a far greater share of male emigrants compared to females."

The major reasons given for the rapid migration across countries were; extreme environmental events (climate change), food insecurity, and epidemics among others.

Globally, an average of 1.5 million people had migrated to Africa since 2020 while close to 20 million migrated from Africa over the same period.

"From 2015 to 2020, the number of migrants born outside the region remained virtually unchanged (around 2 million), most of whom were from Asia and Europe."