The youth of Africa should resist the “understandable tendency to migrate” and focus first on putting their knowledge and skills to use for “the benefit of your fellow citizens,” Pope Leo XIV said during his recent papal trip to Cameroon.
During his address to the Catholic University of Central Africa in Yaoundé, Pope Leo invited the assembled students to respond “with an ardent desire to serve your country and to apply the knowledge you are acquiring here to the benefit of your fellow citizens” in the face of the pressure to move abroad.
“Dear sons and daughters of Cameroon, dear students, in the face of the understandable tendency to migrate — which may lead one to believe that elsewhere a better future may be more easily found — I invite you, first and foremost, to respond with an ardent desire to serve your country and to apply the knowledge you are acquiring here to the benefit of your fellow citizens,” Leo said.
“This is the raison d’être of your university, founded thirty-five years ago to form pastors of souls and lay people committed to society: these are the witnesses of wisdom and justice, of which the African continent needs.”
Cameroon, like many African countries, continues to experience high levels of emigration, including among the educated and professional classes.
A 2024 Afrobarometer survey found that approximately 51 percent of young Cameroonians have thought about emigrating, with the search for work, economic difficulties and poverty being the primary reasons given for their considerations.
According to the Scalabrini Institute for Human Mobility in Africa, he United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs says that Cameroon’s “emigration stock” meanwhile increased from around 978,700 in 2010 to 2.1 million in 2024.
It also notes previous studies indicate that 25-30 percent of experts trained in Cameroon emigrate, while between 70 and 80 percent of Cameroonians trained abroad do not return to their country of origin.
The official think tank of the European People’s Party (EPP), the Wilfried Martens Centre, estimates that 46 million African-born people live outside their country of origin, and that approximately nine million of them have moved to an EU country, or two percent of all people living in the EU.
In his university address, Pope Leo highlighted two issues facing the African continent: ongoing corruption that prolongs conditions of poverty, and the ongoing emigration of young people and skilled professionals.
“Africa, indeed, must be freed from the scourge of corruption. For young people, this awareness must take root from their years of formation, thanks to the moral rigor, selflessness and coherence of life shown by their educators and teachers. Day by day, lay the indispensable foundations for the building of a consistent moral and intellectual identity,” Leo instructed the nation’s professors.
“By bearing witness to the truth — especially in the face of the illusions of ideology and passing fashions — you will foster an environment in which academic excellence is naturally united with human uprightness,” he said.