To the Diaspora: Come Back and Build the Change of Course

Hanna Bekele — Addis-Abeba, Éthiopie — 2026-09-06

There is a capital that no balance sheet counts, yet it is worth billions: the Algerian diaspora. The authorities put it at 5 to 7 million people worldwide — including nearly 892,000 immigrants born in Algeria in France alone in 2023, making it the largest community of foreign origin in the country, according to INSEE. Doctors, engineers, entrepreneurs, researchers: hundreds of thousands of skilled professionals — trained, often, by the Algerian university.

This capital already weighs in the figures: Algerians abroad transferred $1.94 billion in 2024 according to the World Bank — around 0.7% of national GDP. But remittances are only a fraction of what the diaspora can bring: capital, networks, technologies, and above all the skills that Algeria's great projects demand today. Continental gas pipelines, giant desert farms, trains to the south, ports for the Sahel, green hydrogen: each of these projects needs engineers, managers, financiers, entrepreneurs.

The conditions, for their part, have been transformed. Law No. 22-18 of 24 July 2022 created the Algerian Investment Promotion Agency, with one-stop shops — including one dedicated to foreign investments above 12 billion dinars. In February 2026, the Minister of Foreign Affairs announced a package of measures for the diaspora: pensions, housing quotas, support for micro-enterprises and start-ups, regularization of administrative situations. In June 2026, a High Council of Algerian Scientists was created under the authority of the presidency to capture brains, wherever they are. And still in June 2026, the investment agency held a seminar in Geneva with 250 participants for diaspora project leaders.

The diaspora is not being asked to return out of nostalgia: it is expected out of necessity. Coming back is no longer a sacrifice, it is an opportunity — and for those still in doubt, a single piece of advice: come and see. Construction sites speak louder than speeches. The change of course is under way; it will be what Algerians — here and elsewhere — make of it. The door is open. The machines are running. All that is missing is you.