Characteristics of the second generation of illegal immigration and demographic changes in North Africa

Abstract

North African countries are facing profound transformations and dynamics whose features have begun to crystallize on the stage of demographic structure. The human flows moving northward in the form of migratory waves are neither purely coincidental nor merely a natural pattern of human mobility as in the past. Rather, they have come to affect individuals’ lives as well as social structures and systems, due to new forms of migration that have become one of the soft manifestations of a demographic threat capable of reshaping the region’s map. This occurs alongside emerging drivers of instability in the Sahel region, which is rife with complex crises, placing North Africa before new interactions and patterns that have generated demographic pressures and future challenges for these states as existential entities. The current reality of migration flows now intersects with the region’s demographic patterns. This study explores the complex dynamics, future prospects, and the role of international powers and cross-border actors, both official and unofficial.