Sudan

Most immigrants to Sudan cross porous land borders from neighboring African nations seeking safety and economic survival. People from South Sudan, Eritrea, Chad, and Ethiopia make up the vast majority of arrivals, driven by deep historical ties, shared ethnic lineages, and geographic proximity. Today, well over a million South Sudanese and several hundred thousand Eritreans call Sudan home.

The origins of these populations shifted dramatically alongside regional conflicts and redrawn political borders. In the early 1990s, nearly a million Ethiopians sought refuge in Sudan, but Eritreans soon replaced them as the primary immigrant group due to fierce border wars. More recently, South Sudan's independence and subsequent civil conflicts triggered massive displacement, transforming South Sudanese people into the largest immigrant community by a wide margin.

Millions of Sudanese people cross into neighboring Chad, South Sudan, and Egypt to escape severe conflict and find immediate safety. Beyond these immediate land borders, Gulf nations like Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates attract nearly a million expatriates. These economic migrants are drawn to the Arabian Peninsula by a shared Arabic language, religious ties, and stable career opportunities.

For decades, emigration consisted mainly of steady labor movements to the Middle East and regional displacement into Uganda. The redrawing of political borders in 2011 suddenly transformed hundreds of thousands of people into emigrants living in the newly independent South Sudan. Most recently, devastating nationwide violence triggered an unprecedented exodus, pushing over a million refugees into Chad and a half million into Egypt just to survive.