PERSPECTIVE Migratory and Refugee Movements in and from the Horn of Africa GÜNTER SCHRÖDER November 2015 n The Horn of Africa – in the broader sense Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti, Somalia, Kenya, the Sudan / South Sudan – has been an epicentre of immense migratory and refugee movements. These mostly take place within the region, but also affect other regions of Africa, the Middle East, Europe, North America and Australia on a considerable scale. n These migrations primarily take place in the form of refugee and illegal migration movements. The factors triggering them are political, ethnic, religious and gender­specific repression and persecution, civil wars and conflicts between states, environ ­mental crises, poverty and the search for better prospects and opportunities in life. n Motives to leave due to warfare, repression and persecution have intermingled with economic motives in such a complex manner in these refugee and migratory move­ments since the early 1960s that it is no longer possible to draw a clear line separat­ing motives for migration. n Burgeoning diaspora communities from the countries in the Horn abroad are exert­ing an additional pull effect on migratory movements. This has in the meantime become almost as important as other factors conditioning exodus and migration in the respective countries of origin. n No stable solution that could eliminate the causes of exodus and migration in the countries in the Horn is on the horizon. It is highly likely that refugee and migratory movements will if anything tend to intensify in the coming years.