international migration and settlement issues

Human migration has from time in memoriam been considered an important element of population dynamics which has significant consequences on both areas of origin and destination. According to Oderth (2002), migration has shaped the nature of both the receiving country and that of origin more than any other phenomenon in human geography. The existence of an intricate relationship between immigration and development is also captured by Hammer et al. (2002), who claim that migration can have a decisive impact on the direction and speed of development on both the country of origin and destination. The focus of this work is on south-south migration with Cameroon being the country of destination. Many Africans are living in Cameroon for political, socio-cultural and economic reasons. Some have been born here never returning back to their country of origin. Nine localities in the south west region were selected, Questionnaires were used in the collection of data, and respondents were selected randomly. Results show that they were welcomed in most rural areas because they constituted a source of labour especially for the cocoa farmers, but with continuous poor economic situation, most are engaged in businesses and fishing activities. They are considered in the urban areas as criminals and illegal occupants of the land.