Studies in social change : population movements and migrations in Mauritania

But, as this study shows, during the last few decades this mobility has intensified and has taken on a new character. In former times population movements were an integral part of the pastoral, and to a certain extent, the agricultural lifestyle. During the later colonial period, populations also began to migrate for economic reasons, and the drift toward urban areas began. This drift, exacerbated by the Sahelian drought, the creation of a wage sector in Mauritania, and the devaluation of rural work and rural products, continues to the present time. After reviewing the history of migration in Mauritania, and the economic and social conditions motivating today"s population movements (which are primarily labor migrations), the authors of the study examine the negative impacts of these labor migrations on Moorish and Black African (Toucouleur and Soninke) societies, showing that their lifestyles have been radically transformed, e.g., herdsmen have been made sedentary and migrant groups urbanized. A final section discusses migrations to other African countries and to Europe.