MORE PEOPLE LEAVE ESWATINI THAN THOSE SETTLING IN

MBABANE – Eswatini has been named among the 10 worst African countries with the highest net negative migration rates.

This is contained in a report carried by the Business Insider’s website, which quoted the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the economic and population data think tank, Statista. The ranking means more people choose to leave Eswatini compared to those who come to settle in the country.

Ranked

The country is ranked third behind Eritrea at -10.11 per 1 000 inhabitants, Sao Tome and Principe at -7.19, Zimbabwe at -4.83, Lesotho at -4.55, Guinea Bissau at -3.63 and Uganda at -3.26. The rest are Central African Republic at -3.22, Rwanda at -3.21, and Mali at -3.08. Eswatini’s rank is -6.16 per 1 000 inhabitants, meaning those who leave are more by 6.16 per cent compared to those that come in. The OECD defines net migration rate as the difference between the immigration and emigration rates in a country during a given timeframe, usually a year.

The World Bank, meanwhile, defines net migration as ‘the number of immigrants minus the number of emigrants, including citizens and non-citizens’. By emigrants, reference is made to those people who choose to leave a country of residence for another. Immigration refers to when people come into a country from another country. “Typically, a country’s net migration rate is negative if the number of emigrants exceeds the number of immigrants. “In other words, the net migration is negative when more people relocate from a country compared to those moving to the country,” reads a quote on the Business Insider report.

Communications Officer in the Ministry of Home Affairs Mlandvo Dlamini, said there were a number of factors that could have led to the resultant trends. He said some people left the country for economic reasons, while others left to pursue education. “There may be many other factors, given that our economy is typically smaller compared to other countries.

Chose

“The good thing is that there were some people who still chose to come and live in Eswatini. “This shows that the country has some unique offerings that may not be offered by other countries,” he said. Some African countries were quoted in the report to have recorded a positive net migration. OECD states that net migration is positive when more people immigrate to a country than those emigrating from it. The 10 African countries with the highest positive net migration rates were named as South Sudan (20.97), Equatorial Guinea (13.96), Burundi (7.09), Djibouti (4.59), Gabon (3.67), Botswana (2.81), and Sierra Leone (2.03). Others were Ivory Coast (1.18), Seychelles (0.86) and Benin (0.24). The net migration rate for the entire African continent in 2022 was placed at -0.369 per 1 000 inhabitants.