Nowadays, immigration as a world phenomenon regarding first and foremost Africa, is severely neglected especially considering the qualified population. In fact, the number of qualified immigrants in 1990 was 42 million and increased to 59 million by 2000, according to the World Bank, with an average increase of 1.7 million people a year. This certainly means that the African continent is the most affected by this phenomenon. A World Bank study published in October 2005 emphasises that around 74,000 qualified people leave the continent every year. In total, between 1990 and 2000, the number of expatriate qualified Africans increased to 113% in the thirty member countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), 1.4 million people in all. This figure is destined to increase for various reasons, such as: lack of competitiveness of most African universities; organisational rigidity and incapacity to anticipate the real training needs of the continent; weak interdisciplinary skills potential, limited number of university places; absence of real professional opportunities and widespread entrance tactics in certain faculties (favouritism, corruption, tribalism). Every year, all this causes numerous students and young graduates of Sub Saharan Africa to leave the continent to continue studies or work in Northern countries, particularly Europe. Another African paradox is that while every year it loses hundreds of thousands of potentially qualified people who go mainly to Europe and North America, at the same time the continent employs more than 100,000 international experts in various key development sectors through international institutions present in several African countries and the governments themselves.
To confront this challenge, the town of Senigallia (Italy) is promoting a European project financed by the Department of Justice, Peace and Security. The project aim is to promote the voluntary return of African students having completed their studies in European universities as a positive factor for development in Africa, through stable means aimed at strengthening their contribution to reducing poverty. In order to achieve this the project sets out three specific objectives:

1 – to conduct a mapped survey on a sample of 2000 African students and 200 associations related to African immigration in ten European countries. Necessarily, to understand what impact support politics can have concerning helping voluntary immigrants to return to home countries having finished their studies through socio-economic integration support.

2 – to carry out a mapped survey on a sample of 100 local groups and 100 universities to see if they are interested in a commitment to the three party process (university, local group, immigrant associations), supporting voluntary return of African students to their home countries.

3 - to organize a European seminar on best practices to experiment in the field of voluntary return of African students to their home countries. These students often have unstable economic situations due to study fees

The A.V.O.I.R project deals with the integrated management necessary for African students migratory flow,  this would rely on real partnerships, associating universities, the local community and immigrant associations and their relative home countries.