According to a recent New York Times report, some 31,000 Africans tried to reach Europe by boat in 2007, with 6,000 either dead or disappeared.
One of the driving forces behind African emigration has been the depletion of fish supplies on the West African coast by heavily subsidized European fishing boats. The subsidized fishing deprives African fishers of their means of subsistence.
Although the report focuses on West Africa, emigration from poorer to richer countries is a phenomenon of the imperialist stage of capitalism. In a similar fashion, heavily subsidized American agribusiness has flooded Mexican markets with cheap corn, forcing farmers to emigrate in search of a means to support themselves and their families.
