African Migration through the Americas: Drivers, Routes, and Policy Responses

Since 2013, migrants from Africa, most initially arriving through Brazil or Ecuador, have migrated northwards to reach the U.S.-Mexico border. Although still comparatively few in number, border apprehensions of African migrants, at and between ports of entry, peaked in U.S. fiscal year (FY) 2019 at 5,000. The authors of this report anticipate that these numbers will grow in the future, especially as the European Union imposes greater restrictions on African migration across the Mediterranean. Among the 35 different African nationalities intercepted in FY 2019, migrants from Cameroon, the Republic of Congo, Eritrea, Ghana, and Somalia were the most common. The authors of the report argue that it will be crucial for Latin American transit countries to build their capacity to manage this migration, by creating permanent humanitarian resettlement options available to African migrants, strengthening border management controls, and reducing linguistic barriers and discrimination in immigration processing. They also suggest that the U.S. establish a refugee processing center in either Panama or Costa Rica, where claims for refugee status in the U.S. can be adjudicated.

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