The Republic of Sudan also known as Sudan is a country located in Northeast Africa. The country shares border with South Sudan to the south, Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the northeast, Eritrea to the east, Ethiopia to the southeast, the Central African Republic to the southwest, Chad to the west, and Libya to the northwest. It has a population of 37 million as of 2017(CIA, 2018).
The country has been experiencing civil war since 1955 starting with the First Sudanese Civil War also known as the Anyanya Rebellion. Rebel groups demanded representation and more regional autonomy. This was followed by subsequent civil wars eventually leading to the division of the country and formation of the latest country in Africa, the Republic of South Sudan in 2011. Even after the partition, the Republic of Sudan is still raged by continues civil war especially in the Darfur region of the country. This has led to refugee and migration crisis. According to UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR 2016), the number of people seeking asylum stands at 3,200,000 internally displaced persons in Sudan, 29,286 in Egypt, 304,650 in Chad, 3,449 in Kenyaand 38,214 in Ethiopia. Jaspars and Buchanan-Smith (2018) emphasize in a research paper that ‘‘While there has been significant interest in Sudan as a transit country for migration from Africa to Europe, little attention has been paid to Sudan as a source of migrants and refugees. Yet the Sudanese were the fifth, sixth and seventh largest categories of migrants and refugees arriving in Italy in 2015, 2016 and 2017, respectively. “
There is no doubt about large Sudanese migration. However, there is no consensus on the cause of migration. While agencies like the UNHCR have migrants officially reporting and attributing migration to conflict, data from Afrobarometer points to over 85.7% of Sudanese reporting economic reasons including poverty as the major factor influencing migration. Could there be a conflict between what Sudanese migrants report to foreign authorities and the‘‘real” purpose for their migration?
Considering this inconsistency in data captured we, therefore, investigate the major factors driving Sudanese migration by comparing and contrasting various data sources and using this case as a policy learning tool for future decision making by governments around the world.
This research employs mainly a quantitative research design with an element of a qualitative research method. The research will make use of Afrobarometer data as well as data from UNHCR and the European Union to arrive at a conclusion. This way, we will be able to take a closer look at the interaction between poverty and migration as well as other possible indirect factors. The population set will be the total population of the Republic of Sudan as of 2018. On the qualitative side, the research will make use of personal interviews with agencies and authorities using coding to interpret interview results.
