Algeria

*Algerians protests the political power of the National Liberation Front Source: Freedom House*

Full Name: People’s Democratic Republic of Algeria

Date of Independence: July 5th 1963

Capital: Algiers also known as El Djazair

Population: 45.89 million people

Foreign-Born Population: 242, 000 in 2015 making up .61% of the population

Government Structure: Semi-presidential structure: The president acts as head of state while the prime minister (PM) acts as the head of government and thus the PM has greater executive power

Leaders: Abdelmadjid Tebboune is the current President of Algeria and Aymen Benabderrahmane is the current PM

Primary Flow of Immigration:

Algeria has a net migration flow out of the country and the percentage of immigrants coming into the country has been decreasing over the past decade
Algeria geographically acts as a key point in bridging Europe and Sub Saharan Africa and therefore often functions as a transit nation on migratory paths
Algeria primarily receives migrants or immigrants from West Africa, predominantly Mali and Niger
Migration into Southern Algeria has increased since 2016 and by 2018, about 500 migrants traveled to Algeria per day.

Current Stance on Immigration:

Currently, Algeria has policies that either expel or repatriate migrations to Niger and Mali. In 2015, unprecedented amounts of migrants were pushed out of the country
Since 2014, Algeria has faced a decline in economic conditions and thus many migrants who traveled to Algeria temporarily ended up staying as permanent immigrants to accumulate the funds to travel again
Because migration is growing and becoming more permanent, the Algerian government has increased border controls significantly, stationing over 50,000 army personnel at the borders
The Algerian army particularly focuses border control on areas that were human trafficking hubs: this includes sites like the Bordj Badji Mokhtar area on the Malian border or areas facing Nigerien gold mines

Recent Immigration Policy:

Algerian police began conducting large scale raids and arbitrary arrests starting in 2017 in cities along the borders
From 2017 to 2018, the government enacted mass expulsions of people into Mali and Niger, including many people who had not originally come from those nations

Primary Flow of Emigration:

Algerians emigrating primarily travel to Spain and France