Authors: Małgorzata Czarnik, Bartosz Mirowski
- Algeria is the main country of origin of migrants in France.
- Every year, more than 0.5 million Algerians try to enter the EU either legally or illegally.
- Illegal migration to the EU is called ‘harraga’ in Algeria, which literally means ‘those who burn’. However, those who choose to do so are a minority. Most Algerians, at least initially, choose legal migration.
Reasons for migration
Decisions to emigrate from Algeria are most often motivated by economic reasons. The Algerian economy is dependent on world market hydrocarbon prices, as 80% of its GDP comes from gas exports to EU Member States. The lack of additional sources of revenue leads to the country being unable to meet the needs of its rapidly growing population. Between 2014 and 2022, Algeria’s population increased from 38.8 million to 44.9 million. During the same period, the country’s GDP decreased from $213.8 billion to $195 billion. Between 2018 and 2021, the number of people living below the poverty line increased by 600,000, and inflation has been consistently above 8% since 2021. The unemployment rate is around 15% among the general population and 30% among the youth. The average wage of those in work is $317, which does not allow them to rent a flat on their own, which in turn causes difficulties for many men in finding a partner interested in marriage. The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) conducted a survey in 2021 and found that 30% of Algerian respondents were considering going abroad. In 2020, the IOM conducted another survey that revealed 83% of Algerians in the workforce were either considering or were willing to seek employment abroad. Although the country has a well-developed social housing system similar to that of the communist era, one usually has to wait several years to obtain housing.
Sociocultural factors also influence the decision to leave. Around 98% of Algerians follow Islam, which is the dominant religion in the country. The preamble to the Algerian constitution states that it is a fundamental element of the country’s identity. The country has also had a strongly religious family code since 1984. Under it, extramarital sexual relations are defined as the crime of adultery, punishable by two years in prison. In practice, the only way to prove this crime is to have an illegitimate child. To circumvent this evidence, women either carry out illegal abortions or abandon their newborns in clinics. In addition to legal issues, adult individuals, particularly women, are subject to strong parental control. Therefore, many people want to leave Algeria to live within the EU according to their own rules.
Legal migration
The primary way for Algerians to reach the EU is through legal migration. Between 2014 and 2023, Algerian nationals submitted 5.6 million visa applications to EU Member State consulates. 2017 saw the highest number of applications—779,000—and 2023 saw 474,000. The number of refusals issued annually by consulates varies between 24% and 45%, with an upward trend starting in 2022, when France introduced a mandatory refusal quota for Algerians of 50% regardless of whether applications meet the criteria or not. The French consulate receives 60% of visa applications, while the Spanish consulate handles 27%. The other most busy posts are the consulates of countries such as Italy, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Malta, Switzerland, Poland, and Greece. In reality, 80% of applicants want to visit France, and they apply at other consulates because they don’t have refusal quotas and can get visa decisions faster. The main purposes of travelling to the EU are to visit relatives, for tourism, to study at university, to work, or to meet suppliers of goods imported into the Algerian market.
Obtaining a visa is a life priority for many people under 40. However, because of the relatively high requirements set by consulates, this is not easy. Under-40s are subject to very thorough vetting. They have to prove that they have adequate means to finance the trip and have family, work, and assets in Algeria that will discourage them from remaining in the EU after the visa expires. In the case of spouses, often only 1 of them gets a visa, and in the case of entire families, visas are usually not issued to children. Documented returns from travel can relax these criteria for subsequent visa applications. However, staff at the consulates of all EU Member States can access a special application that records every refusal or infraction. Once rejected at one consulate, a person finds it challenging to obtain a visa at other consulates. The first visa is usually issued for a period of 10 days, the next three for a period of three months; only later is it possible to obtain a visa for a year with the possibility of multiple entries.
People use various, often very creative, measures to fraudulently obtain a visa. For example, applicants can set up a company and present false import invoices. It also happens that employers contact a potential foreign investor or exporter and convince him to train their 20 employees. However, after obtaining a visa, these individuals either fail to show up at the company’s premises for training, or they attend the training only to later visit their relatives in France. Their Algerian employers, in turn, charge several thousand euros for each person on the list. It is also common to seek social and even sexual contacts with Europeans in order to obtain a positive visa decision.
Illegal migration
Two migration routes pass through Algerian territory: the Western Mediterranean and the Central Mediterranean. The Central Mediterranean route passes through Tunisia to Italy. The Western Mediterranean route, on the other hand, passes through Morocco or western Algeria before leading to Spain. From the beginning of 2009 until May 2024, a total of 78,649 Algerians used both routes, of which 65,909 chose to take the Western Mediterranean route. 12,740 opted for the Central Mediterranean route to Italy. The third most popular route for the adopted range is the Eastern Mediterranean route via Libya, Egypt, the Middle East, and Turkey to Greece, with 18,234 people, but its importance has declined since 2017. Between 2009 and 2024, 101,000 Algerian citizens reached the EU illegally, almost half of them between 2019 and 2023.
Algerian nationals from other African countries such as Guinea, Mali, Chad, Niger, Benin, and Côte d’Ivoire also used Algeria as a route to Europe. The Algerian government has decided to counter illegal departures from the country by criminalising them. Since 2009, Algerians and resident foreigners caught trying to leave the territory without a passport or visa face a sentence of two to six months’ imprisonment and a fine of between 20,000 and 60,000 dinars (approximately €140 to €430) under the Algerian Penal Code.
Many irregular migrants die during the journey. In 2023, more than 3 000 people drowned in the Mediterranean Sea. The high mortality rate among migrants has become a lucrative source of revenue for smugglers. When desperate families search for their deceased relatives, individuals often appear, claiming to know where their bodies are and offering to share this information for a fee.
The main destination is France, home to almost 3 million people of Algerian origin. However, as the direct distance to France is considerable, they take the much shorter sea route to the coast of Spain, from where they head to France by land. The Spanish police or coast guard can stop them at any time along the way. Early in October 2021, a train near Saint-Jean-de-Luz in south-western France killed three Algerian migrants and seriously injured one. According to local authorities, they were resting on the tracks to avoid the police when they were surprised by the first train of the day.
Conclusions and perspectives
With little chance of achieving a life at a level that allows independence from their parents, young Algerian men and women are making immigration their main goal in life. The most common destination is France, due to the French language widely spoken in Algeria and the frequent family ties with Algerian nationals. However, Algeria, unlike most African countries, provides its citizens with a certain social minimum, resulting in a relatively low number of people choosing to risk illegal migration. Most Algerians see their opportunity in legal migration or in migration that is initially legal, transforming into illegal migration by not returning to the country after the visa expiry date.
Although migration in Algeria has decreased recently, it will persist until the country’s socio-economic situation improves or the trend of high birth rates reverses. It is therefore in the EU’s interest to establish clear criteria to attract migrants to meet the needs of the EU labour market. Furthermore, given the demographic problems in the EU, it seems sensible to issue visas more often to single women under the age of 40.
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