An interesting article published on the Brookings Africa Foresight 2024 titled “The whys and hows of the mobility of Africans in Africa” raises the importance for African States to guarantee greater personal mobility across national borders for their citizens, as a condition for the successful implementation of the AfCFTA, and in particular of the Protocols for trade in services and investment, which explicitly require such mobility. The article notes that in Africa there is a lack of enthusiasm for the African Union’s free movement protocol mainly because of the fear, by the wealthiest countries, that masses of economic immigrants from poorer countries will relocate in their territories, in a time when they are already facing social issues, such as poverty and high unemployment. The risk is that such a large influx of low-income people will turn into a "social bomb" capable of causing social welfare systems in these States to collapse.
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