Agadez, at the Sahelo-North-African Migratory Crossroads

Abstract

Increasing population flows from Sub-Saharan Africa extend across the Sahara toward North Africa and, to a much more limited extent, toward Europe. <br>Initially originating in the Sahel, these constantly growing migratory currents currently stretch across all of West Africa. The itineraries, following revived segments of older trans-Saharan axes, contribute to reinforcing their place in currents of exchange. These itineraries re-compose the urban spaces they cross and encourage the emergence of interchanges that facilitate migratory circulation. Marked by the contrasted coexistence of sectors inhibiting it and others facilitating it, this circulation has led to a very selective canalisation of flows, producing obstacles that make the Agadezian the preferred itinerary and are at the origin of the emergence of the Agadez as the (almost) sole crossroads of migratory routes. <br>These flows, which intensify the density of contacts between the Mediterranean and Sub-Saharan Africa, generate proximity but also conflict in North African countries which are no longer only zones of transit but are becoming countries of settlement. Immigration, no longer limited to the Euro – North-African space but overflowing into other African countries, takes on an intercontinental dimension.