Some seasonal migrants settled in what were becoming semiurban market villages. These markets meant an area at the 'hungry' end of its year would have a supply of food grown elsewhere. Such trade resulted from a geographical division of food production, encouraged by the introduction of new crops from the Americas.

Those involved in short-term trade, usually women, took surplus crops to regional markets for exchange. Subsistence farmers tended their own fields, and, after the harvest, moved elsewhere to farm for others in Western, even Central Africa. Pastoralists followed their cattle and goats around the region in a seasonal movement, seeking better grazing in time with rainfall. Prior to French colonization, which began in 1886, seasonal, also known as circular, migration centered on three principal occupations: herding, farming, and trade. Thus, while a net exporter of people, Burkina Faso itself is rapidly becoming a country of migrants. Between 19, the percentage of people living in Burkina Faso who were born outside the country tripled, from 438,000 in 1990 to over a million a decade later, almost 10 percent of the population. Yet, Burkina Faso, home to some 32 languages, three major religions, and 10 main ethnicities within its own borders, has become a destination for other migrants.

It has not produced many refugees, and it has only received small numbers from neighboring Mali, most of whom have returned. Due at first to colonialism and now globalization, Burkinabè tend to migrate not on a seasonal basis but for periods of up to two years before returning, and there is evidence that children born abroad are increasingly remaining in their country of birth.ĭespite intolerant policies and conflict in Côte d'Ivoire in 20, which forced thousands to return to Burkina Faso, it continues to be the top destination although exact data is not available.īurkina Faso has largely avoided upheavals and civil wars, familiar stories to many of its West African neighbors. In 1990, the country's net migration (numbers of migrants entering the country minus those leaving) was 28,000, and, by 2000, this had become a loss of 68,000 a year, in a population of about 11 million. According to the United Nations Human Development Index (HDI), which measures life expectancy, literacy, and standard of living, Burkina Faso has the third lowest HDI in the world, outranked only by Niger and Sierra Leone.Īlthough the country has seen some rural migration to the capital Ouagadougou, at least two-thirds of migration is to Côte d'Ivoire, its neighbor to the south and the traditional destination of Burkinabè emigrants. Since its independence from France in 1960, the country has struggled to improve its agriculture-based economy. Overall, one Burkinabè in five now lives abroad.

In the last 50 years, more traditional migration patterns have been reestablished, though these have retained important colonial characteristics. The arrival of European colonial powers in the 19th century completely reshaped migration patterns. For the Western African nation of Burkina Faso, as with its neighbors in the region, migration has been a way of life for over 1,000 years as people followed livestock and crops on a seasonal basis.

Upper volta was ruled