FAO.org

While international migration attracts most attention, since the late 1990s, internal and in particular temporary migration flows increased significantly in Senegal. These migratory dynamics, whose modalities have diversified alongside migrants' profiles and trajectories, are the result of the combined effect of population growth and underemployment, of a continuous degradation of the natural environment and of migration policies of OECD countries limiting international mobility. Internal migration largely comes from rural areas. This is indicative of a state of structural crisis that marks the agricultural sector but also reflects the low diversification of the national economy. The migrations flows reshape the national space and illustrate the need for territorial balancing around regional development poles. This rebalancing is necessary in order to avoid the continuation of a concentration of the Senegalese population in the Dakar agglomeration, which poses problems of sustainability of the national growth model. Migration dynamics thus highlight the need for public policies adapted to the challenges and they contribute to the strengthening of the debate.